Easy Steps to Make Perfect Prefelt at Home!

Prefelt has uses that cannot be achieved using fulled felt. Prefelt is partly finished felt of one layer of wool fibre. The wool fibres are beginning to connect with each other but that connection has not been finalised as a piece of felt fabric. The wool fibres have begun their relationship with each other sufficient to staying in place and not falling apart when you pick up the work but the fibres have not become totally locked in place as will happen when heat is applied and the wool is fully felted through rolling and massaging in all directions. My preference is to lay out a single layer for prefelt as I am not usually trying to make felt that is thick. I live in a very warm climate with a short, slightly cool winter so we dont have a great need for very thick wool. That is why I favour the single layer prefelt. Prefelt has multiple purposes: *It can be used to speed up the felting process when a project is assembled, *Prefelt can enable a clean edge to be created to pattern, Prefelt can be brilliant when you want to make a design with clear colours and clean edges. *Prefelt can help to make a clear opaque colour with just a hint of the underlying wool colour through it. *Prefelt is really useful if you want to make a multicolored mosaic type pattern. Just cut out the shapes in prefelt and connect them with whisps of un-felted fleece. *If you try to connect two pieces of 'fulled' felt, it is difficult to get the wool to go through or connect with each other. Prefelt however is not finished felt so there are enough loose fibres for two pieces of prefelt to attach to each other or for a piece of prefelt to connect with cloth in the case of nuno felt or onto a wool base. In this video you will see me claim to dry felt the wool. This is my term for a process where you just lay down the wool and then pat and prod the work gently until the whole piece stays together when you pick it up. Mostly this describes making a wool bat. Wool bats can be made by hand or on a special medieval looking spikey roller machine used by feltmakers. and also for carding wool for spinning. You can see from this video that all the fibres in our sample are lined up in the same direction. When trying to create felt from start to finish, it is usual to lay down two or more layers ( depending on required thickness) and to lie the wool down so that each layer 's fibre is running in a different direction. Felted fibre is always very very strong when the felting process is completed but pretty strong as a piece of prefelt too. *Yes you can use a sander machine to make prefelt ***Most importantly , I strongly suggest only using cold water or room temperature water NOT HOT Water!. *Dont use hot water or any other form of heating when you only want to make prefelt. As everyone who has 'killed' their best jumper (Australian) , sweater or jersey... knows, hot water and agitation will create a piece of rock hard felt every time. I hope you find this little video useful along with the hints and tips for making your own prefelt.