Hello!
So furthering onward with my one year one outfit adventures, I thought I would put together a post on my other efforts so far… I have also been making my fabric for the other components of my outfit.  Yes, making freakin’ fabric!!!! transforming Western Australian sheep fleece into felt, with which I shall make…. something.    Still ruminating on exactly what...  
Along with my fellow one year one outfitters Sue, Nicki and Megan, I visited Bilby Yarns; a small but treasure-packed little shop in Willagee that supports local wool producers and enthusiasts and stocks supplies for anything and everything wool-related you could possibly think of! spinning, weaving, felting, needle felting, knitting and crochet and probably some other endeavours that I haven’t taken in yet, too.  It also stocks dyes, both natural and chemical and, most fabulously; yarn from Western Australian sheep, hand processed and hand spun by local ladies.  It’s a truly fantastic local resource! and I can see myself paying the shop many more visits in the future.  The lovely chatty June kindly demonstrated spinning and also felting to us; and we all came away with supplies of fleece, greatly enthused to make us some felt…

I have made some decorative felt panels a few times before, small and therefore easy things; blogged here and here and a couple of others that I’ve given away and never blogged.  However, this project would have to fit in with Nicki’s strict criteria; to be a TOTALLY home grown product.  Normally if I was considering making felt for a garment to wear; I would felt onto a piece of silk chiffon to give strength to the fabric. 

However; obviously silk chiffon is not a thing ever produced here in Western Australia! so in terms of our challenge it was a no-no.  I had to think of some other way of building some toughness into my felt…  I noticed a small sample in the shop with a yarn grid felted into it, and thought this would be a brilliant way of solving the strength problem.  I incorporated a yarn grid feature into one piece of my felt and I will be using another method of building strength into the remaining pieces.
I bought some washed and combed, naturally white Corriedale sheep fleece, and also two balls of locally hand-spun, West Australian wool yarn; one naturally black the other naturally white; and 3 large, thin, plastic, painting drop-sheets from Bunnings.

Modus Operandi:
First of all.. key words:  GENTLE!  EVEN!  Those two words were to be my mantra throughout this entire procedure.  OK.
Now: you need a fair amount of uninterrupted time, and for large pieces of felt big enough for an actual garment, a large table; preferably indoors in a wind-less, breeze-free environment.  I used my dining room table.  When laying out the fleece, bear in mind the fleece will shrink to roughly 75% of its former size in the process of becoming felt, so if you’re after a specific size you’ll need to allow at least an extra third in size dimensions each way.
I laid my cut-to-fit plastic drop sheet on the table and start laying out small hanks of fleece onto it.  You hold the combed fleece loosely in your left hand, not too tight and not applying any pressure, and then with your right hand you grab and just pull away a small flat wodge.  Aim to keep the sections you’re pulling out of reasonably even spread and thickness; i.e., with no thick bits in the middle.  

Then, you’re simply laying them all in an even layer as possible, in one direction onto the plastic sheet.  I used my whole 2m x 1m table space.  This is why you need a good wedge of time, since your family’s not going to be able to eat dinner on the table during this process! and you can’t exactly pack it up out of the way since the wool fleece is so light and floaty that at all times it’s in danger of wafting about, blowing onto itself, or onto the floor if a door opens and a breeze comes through.  Plus in my three cat household there’s the very real danger that a curious little helper is suddenly going to jump up onto the table to check out what you’re doing and keep you company while you’re doing it.  Eeeeeeeek!  The potential for disaster is HUGE! 

Check all over to make sure there are no dry bits; and once the fleece is wet through lay another cut-to-fit plastic dropsheet over the fleece, smoothing out any air bubbles, and start gently massaging to felt the fleece together.  Be light but firm, use small circular movements,  and cover the whole area evenly.  Every now and again peel back a corner to check that it’s felting together.

Once it seems to be melded and matted together enough that you can peel a corner away from the plastic and it seems to hold together in a sodden sheet of wool; replace that corner back between the plastic layers, and roll or fold the whole shebang up.  Fill a bucket with quite warm, but not hot! soapy water, plonk it in and start to gently agitate the plastic-wrapped fleece in the water.  Use the same sort of movements you would if you were hand-washing a precious cashmere jumper.  So, a bit of smooth slow swooshing, but no rubbing and nothing very vigorous.  Just some nice gentle easy swirling.

Just like you would that precious cashmere jumper; gently squeeze some excess water out, then lay the felt out on old towels and smooth it out as flat and smooth and even as possible.  Gently pull it into shape, tease out the crumply edges, smooth out any creases or little folds.  It will have shrunk somewhat during the felting process.  For the record; I initially laid out my fleece in a 90cm x 180cm rectangle.  After felting; my pieces had shrunk to roughly  67cm x 133cm; ie. approx. 75% of the previous size in both dimensions.  

When satisfied it is pulled flat and smooth and into a more or less rectangular  shape, roll it up in the towel, smoothing out any little creases that may form as you’re going along.  Squeeze excess water out by kneeling on and pressing down on the towel roll.  
Unroll, lay the wet felt onto fresh dry towels, and let it dry flat.

Et voila! felt!
The gridded felt is quite tough, sturdy enough to use on its own; and I plan to add extra strength to my plain cream pieces by adding some wool embroidery of some sort, which I am in the process of designing right now.
The most difficult part of all will be to cut into this precious stuff…  eeep!  must not ruin..!