When is felt used

Today, textile manufacturers primarily use felt to produce hats and other insulative substances such as boot linings. Thicker and harder than woven or knitted wool, felt provides an excellent barrier against cold temperatures, and this woolen material is not scratchy against the skin. As most children and parents know, felt is also a popular crafting material, and you can use your imagination to make practically anything with felt.

Most felt designed for crafting, however, is acrylic, which is less comfortable against the skin and more harmful to the environment than woolen felt.

Therefore, the majority of woolen felt was manufactured in Australia, though in some cases, Australian sheep farmers ship their raw wool to China for finishing. Genuine wool felt is reasonably expensive, but it is usually around the same price as other wool textiles.

Felt made with acrylic or other synthetic fibers is less expensive, but it does not have the same beneficial attributes as wool felt. Over the centuries, textile artisans have developed quite a few different types of woolen or fur felt.

More recently, fabric manufacturers have deviated from the norm and started making felt with materials other than natural animal fibers. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, wool felt shares the beneficial attributes of its base fiber, including absorbency, fire resistance, and impressive insulative properties. To this day, some textile manufacturers use beaver pelts to make felt hats and other accessories.

While not as in vogue in the era of animal rights, fur felt is useful due to its impressive durability and high malleability. Acrylic felt has become increasingly popular over the last century.

Cheaper to produce than wool, acrylic felt offers some of the same benefits as conventional felt. Unlike wool or fur felt, however, acrylic felt is highly flammable, and it is uncomfortable when worn against the skin. Commonly used in industrial and medical applications, rayon felt shares the hydrophilic properties of wool felt. One of the major benefits of rayon felt is the ability to shape this textile into various insulative products, but like all synthetic textile fibers, rayon is a non-biodegradable pollutant.

Pressed felt is the most common type of felt, and it is also the oldest. Produced by combining textile fibers into a mat using water, heat, and pressure, this type of felt is usually sold in sheets and shaped into various consumer, industrial, and medical items. Artisans use specialized needles to make needled felt figurines and other three-dimensional products.

This type of felt is not insulative or used for industrial purposes, and instead, most needled felt products are decorative in nature. Woven felt is a type of felt fabric that textile manufacturers produce by applying heat, water, and pressure to pre-woven fabrics.

The result is a matted, highly insulative fabric that can be much thinner than pressed felt. The only potential environmental issues associated with these types of felt regard land use and proper animal stewardship. In the modern era, harvesting animals for fur is considered to be cruel and barbaric, and in some cases, wool production can involve animal cruelty and cause pollution or soil erosion. Natural fibers are, however, invariably better for the environment than synthetic textiles.

Both acrylic and rayon production involve the use of toxic, caustic chemicals that can harm textile workers. Only rarely do textile manufacturers dispose of these chemicals properly, and in most cases, they pollute surrounding ecosystems. Acrylic and rayon felt are not washed as commonly as other synthetic textiles, but these synthetic felt fabrics can still contribute to microfiber pollution while in use. As non-biodegradable fabrics, acrylic and rayon felt fill up landfills or contribute to plastic pollution when discarded.

Wool felt fabrics may be eligible for Woolmark certification, which is a certifying agency that ensures wool products were produced using safe, sustainable, and cruelty-free processes. Certain fur felt fabrics produced in the European Union may be eligible for WelFur certification, which ensures that fur products were produced responsibly. These organizations certify natural fabrics that were produced using organic, sustainable processes, and they even certify certain types of recycled synthetic textiles.

About the author:. Needlefelting uses a special needle or set of needles to matt the fibres together. The needles are barbed and these barbs tangle and matt the fibres to form felt. Wet felting can be done with animal fibres such as wool, whereas needlefelting can produce felt from any fibre. Wet felting is the best way to produce large sheets of felt at home. Needlefelting is ideal for adding embellishments to projects and is also a good way to produce three dimensional work such as figures or dolls.

Anyone who has ever put a pure wool jumper or sweater into a washing machine later to find that it has shrunk to a fraction of its original size will be familiar with the felting process of knitted or woven fabrics.

Technically, this is known as fulling, however it is more often referred to as felting. Any wool item can be felted in a washing machine. This includes garments and wool blankets. Felt made in this way is ideal for using in a wide range of projects and is considered a great way to recycle items. One of the fun things about working with felted garments is that it provides a good range of colours or patterns. While making felt at home is a simple process which requires little in the way of special equipment, some people prefer the convenience of buying felt.

Commercially produced felt made from manmade fibres is readily available from craft stores. Wool felt is less widely available, however many felt textile artists sell pieces of felt or are happy to take commissions.

A local textile group will be able to give more information. Individual wool fibers are covered with small scales. When water and pressure from rubbing are applied the scales open up and the fibers tangle together. When the felt dries fibers stay tangled.

Needle felting is the technique of making felt without the water. Felt is made by interlocking wool fibers by stabbing then with a barbed needle. The barbs of the needle catch the scales on the fiber and cause them to tangle and bind together. This is a popular arts craft used by hobbyist and artists.

Nuno felting is a technique developed by Polly Stirling, a fiber artist from Australia. The technique bonds loose fibers of wool into a sheer fabric such as silk gauze, nylon or muslin, which creates a lightweight felt.