Fun with My First Felt Hat

Me in my Funky Felted Hat

Just about the only good thing about this frigidly cold winter has been that I get to wear the very warm and very funky hat that I made for myself last fall.  I had been wanting to wet felt a hat for myself for a long time, but I wasn't sure how to go about it.  After reading a couple of books, lots of blogs and watching several online tutorials, I came up with a way that worked for me.  To make a long story short, I needle felted on a rudimentary homemade foam hat form, then wet felted on a ball.  Then, I did my Zazzy Peacock thing and needle-felted a fun piece to decorate my new hat -- including a peacock motif, swirls, leopard print, and all the colors in my winter wardrobe.  I love it!

My homemade foam hat form

Here's how it happened:  First I tried to go straight to wet felting on a ball, but that didn't exactly work out.  Using that method, you're supposed to lay the wool roving out on a ball and then somehow magically stretch pantyhose over all that loose wool without messing it up.  Then, voila, you wet felt on the ball.  But as you've probably surmised by now, I completely messed up the wool trying to get the pantyhose on.  Granted, the tutorials warn that it's a two person job and to go very slowly.  I was just one impatient person, and it was a no-go for me.

Layers of wool laid vertically on foam hat form

Then I read about needle-felting on a hat form.  I knew I wanted to wet felt the hat, but since  I prefer needle-felting, I thought I could at least do the pre-felting with a needle and then wet felt once the wool was holding together.  

You can buy hat forms, but that gets very expensive.  Most suggestions for making your own foam hat form involved using spray insulation foam, which is economical, but it sounded complicated and messy.  So I decided to try to carve a form from a block of foam.  For me, this was an inexpensive option because I happened to have two 16" foam blocks from two cube seats that my kids had outgrown.  I used my electric carving knife (yes, the one we use to carve the turkey) to do the job.  The form is rudimentary, and there were little bits of foam just about everywhere, but it worked!  (If you're making your own, remember to size up to allow for lots of shrinkage during the wet felting process.)

Horizontal layer of wool fibers

I laid out the first layer of wool vertically, then horizontally, then vertically, etc., lightly needle-felting the wool in place between each layer.  Most tutorials recommend three layers, but I somehow ended up doing four or five, which is why my hat is extra thick and warm and cozy.  To create the rolled edge, I created a rope of wool (using needle and wet felting); then after laying down the last vertical layer of wool, I turned the hat inside out, and folded the loose ends of wool over the rope along the bottom edge of the hat; then I needle felted it all together.

Ball secured to canister with duct tape

Once I was confident that the wool was holding together and that the layers were even throughout, I transferred the pre-felted hat to a ball for wet felting.  With the ball secured to a canister, I rubbed the wool with hot soapy (using olive oil soap) water for a while.  When it seemed strong enough, I took the hat off the ball and threw it on my counters for a while.  Wow, that really got it firmly felted and fast! I then did some final shaping directly on my head.  

When it was dry, I shaved it very carefully with an electric razor to achieve a smoother finish.  Then it was time to create my personal fascinator.  I needle-felted it separately rather than directly on to the hat.  This gave it a more sculptural quality with more dimension.  Also, I initially thought I would just pin in on so that I could swap it out  at some point, but I loved it so much that I just needle-felted on to the hat. 



By the way, my rolled edge didn't exactly come out even, and I made it worse by trying to create a scalloped edge.  What was I thinking?  At some point, I'll fix that -- the beauty of needle-felting is that you can always continue to add wool -- for more detail or to correct imperfections.  In the meantime, I have been getting lots of use out of this hat during what has been the coldest winter I can ever remember.  It is warm and fuzzy and very me, and I love it.  I think there is more hat-making in my future!

My unique Zazzy Peacock felted wool hat with its colorful peacock heart, swirls, and animal print

Needle Felting: Love at First Poke

Wool roving, foam and felting needles 

I’ve experimented with many materials and forms of art and crafts over the years.  I’ve dabbled in ceramics, polymer clay, crochet, beading, tie-dye, and quilting, among other things.  I’ve painted everything from canvas and paper, to wood, walls, furniture, denim and even leather shoes and handbags.  But I’d never taken to anything so quickly or so passionately as I did to needle felting.  In her fabulously fun and instructive book, I Felt Awesome, Moxie warned me that needle felting was addictive, but it was already too late for me.  Oh man, it was literally love at first poke, and I’ve been felting almost every day since. 

Given that most people I know look at me like I have three heads when I mention “needle felting,” a brief explanation seems in order.  Needle felting is the process of taking loose wool fibers, usually roving or batting (basically cleaned unspun wool hairs, either combed or uncombed), which have been dyed in a wonderful array of brilliant, rich colors, and poking them repeatedly (we’re talking a lot of poking) with special barbed needles until the fibers become enmeshed and matted together into one seamless non-woven fabric.   I then create designs by adding little wisps of different colored fibers, almost like I’m painting with wool.  Only it’s even better, because the result is something soft, fuzzy, and functional. I absolutely love it!

My new sleeve

I myself only discovered needle felting thanks to Martha Stewart.  I happened to spot a blurb in Living magazine about how to needle felt cute little patches over holes in wool sweaters.  Well, this caught my attention because I’d been hanging on to a cashmere sweater with a couple of holes.  So I innocently ordered a pack of wool roving and a felting needle over the internet.  Two days later, I needle felted a simple design over the holes in my sweater, and -- boom -- I was hooked!  Over the next two weeks, I read a slew of books on felting and magically acquired several different kinds of needles and nearly fifty different colors of wool.  It was like I was possessed! 

           

Zazzy Peacock iphone and camera cases

Those first two weeks, I broke two needles and went through at least one band-aid a day.  I’m happy to say I haven’t broken a needle since, and I hardly ever break the skin anymore.  I can still be heard yelping, “Ow!” on a fairly regular basis, however.  (Did I mention that these needles are really, really sharp and barbed?)

Anyway, I’ve spent many, many happy hours since then honing my felting skills and refining my process.   Now I needle felt my pieces – poking them countless times with various needles, do some wet felting  (which –over-simplication alert – involves rubbing and/or rolling the felt in hot soapy water) to further tighten the fibers, and then needle felt some more – until I’m satisfied that the piece is firm and well-felted.

And you can only imagine how many colors of wool I have to work with now!  The best part is that I keep coming up with ideas for different things I can make, and new designs and color combinations to try.  The possibilities seem endless, and I’m so excited to see my artistic visions come to their fuzzy felted fruition.  Well, back to felting!

Have you tried any new crafts lately?  Are you tempted to try needle felting?


All Zazzy Peacock Studios designs and images shown are  © Jill Newman 2012.  All rights are reserved.