We have school holidays coming up here quite soon. I’ve planned that I will do some creative things with my daughters then.
The other night at the opening of the Stitch+Stitch=Magic exhibition I was talking with a lovely lady, Gail Davis, who had felted the background for her embroidery. I asked her a bit about felting, as its something that I’d like to try. We talked for a bit, and she mentioned that she recently felted with a 4 year old relative of hers. It made me think that it would be a great thing for me to do with my daughters during our upcoming holidays.
She suggested a reasonably priced place to get wool tops for felting with – Virginia Farm Woolworks. I checked out their prices compared to other places, and they did indeed seem very reasonably priced – about half the price of most other places.
So on Tuesday I went onto their website and chose 4 different coloured wool tops, and rang them and ordered them.
Clockwise from top left: Wattle, Royal, Purple, Raspberry
They arrived yesterday (the next day) which is great service! I was so pleased with the yummy colours, and the wool is so soft! I’m keeping it all a surprise for my girls for now, but I think we’re going to have fun being creative and getting wet!
I’m also trying to justify why I should give it a go before I try it with the girls. Surely I need to have tried and understood the process before trying to do it with others?! (If you’re having trouble reading between the lines, I just can’t wait to give it a go!)
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Great idea, Yvette. I went to a felt-making workshop recently and made a hat. I was surprised by how easy it was. I hadn’t thought to do it with the children; I’m sure they’d love it.
Felt is great for kids, its pretty quick and easy. I’ve felted with people of all ages and the big thing gets a lot of people is time – giving up too early – it takes longer than they think to roll / rub / turn into felt. So for kids, I would start with a small project like making felt beads to turn into necklaces or bracelets or maybe making a placemat. And the beauty of felt is if the kids get bored rolling it all in one go, you can actually leave it and come back to it later.
Thanks Jennifer. Great tip about the time aspect. I was thinking we’ll just do a small rectangle each that we might then embroider on. Not for anything in particular, just to do it. But the necklace/bracelet idea is very much work thinking about too.
Thanks so much for the link Yvette. I’ve been trying to find a source of natural wool rovings for a while, and since moving to NSW have forgotten all my my previous searches – I like to use it as pincushion stuffing, and now I see a trip is in order in a few weeks time when I’m on holidays – yippee 😀
I’ve only tried wet felting once and it didn’t quite work out as the book suggested. It was fun, but if you want an excuse to practise beforehand you can refer to my experience!