Making Adorable Button-Jointed Stuffed Animals. Rebecca Ruth Anderson

to feel the presence of interfacing through the thin layer of lining. Should you choose a coat with fused interfacing, you can usually pull it off before felting. If some glue remains on the fabric, the side with dots of interfacing glue can be placed to the inside of your stuffed animal.

      Wool blankets would seem to be a good source of project material; however, they usually felt up too thick to use for animals. If you’re looking for a specific color, you could purchase woven wool by the yard from a fabric or craft store. It is expensive but often a great way to find the color you want. Remember to look for coat-weight wool.

       Nonwoven Wool

      Available from a fabric or craft store, nonwoven wool has fibers that have been bonded and compressed by a machine. Most often, this kind of felt is not made of wool, although woolen craft felt is available. This fabric is not as soft as felted wool and has almost no stretch. Sew it with a sewing machine.

       Polar Fleece

      Available in many colors and patterns, polar fleece can be used and does not need to be felted. Polar fleece has a great deal of stretch. Choose the thickest weight of fleece you can find. Check that the cut edge is pleasing since the raw edges will show when your animal is complete. Sew animals of polar fleece on a sewing machine.

       Hand-Knitted Wool

      You can always make knitted wool yourself by knitting some yardage together with wool yarn. This will allow you to take advantage of the extensive color choices available. Knit twice the amount called for in the pattern—that way you will have plenty to work with after it shrinks in the felting process.

       Where to Look for Wool

      In your hunt for wool, search for 100% wool items. Many blends will work as well (80% wool and 20% other fibers) but 100% wool is best. Some wool, however, has been treated against shrinking during machine washing and will not felt correctly. It isn’t always possible to know ahead of time if a garment will felt. A “dry clean only" tag is a good indication that it might work. Alpaca and cashmere have much finer/smaller scales than wool does and so is much more difficult to felt. I’ve never been able to felt either one, even after washing it six or eight times.

      Since wool garments are made to dry clean, you can’t be sure that the color is fast. Assume the dye may run and use a color fixative, like Retayne™, when you wash the garments.

      Resale shops, thrift stores, and consignment shops are also good sources for wool.

      Fabric stores can be good (if expensive) sources of coat-weight wool.

      Search garage sales and bazaars at churches or other organizations.

       EXAMPLES OF WHAT TO LOOK FOR ON THE LABEL

       How Felting Works

      It has happened to all of us. A beautiful wool sweater gets mixed into a load of wash. Even if the temperature setting was not on HOT, when we lift out the sweater at the end of the wash cycle, we see to our astonishment that it has shrunk to half its original size. And there is nothing we can do to reverse the damage.

       A BRIEF HISTORY OF FELTING

      As long ago as 700 bc, Siberian nomads used felted wool to make tents, saddles, and clothing. Tradition has it that in the first century ad, St. Clement experienced a happy accident when he stuffed flax fibers into his sandals to make them more comfortable. Heat, pressure, and perspiration bound them permanently together into a pad—in other words, felt! He remains the patron saint of hat makers and adept felters to this day. “Fullers” made felted wool fabric in the Middle Ages using fuller’s earth, a clay that absorbed oils from woven wool cloth. They applied the clay and then stomped it into the cloth, cleansing and agitating the fibers. “Boiled” wool, used for making stiff Tyrolean jackets, came later.

      That’s the distressing side of felting. Intentional felting is a much happier process. It takes a loose material that will fray when cut and turns it into a super-strong fabric that cuts neatly without fraying. The felted wool’s density means it has structure—ideal for making animal figures that can stand on their own four legs!

      How felting works is pure magic resulting from the anatomy of each strand of wool. Wool is a protein fiber encased in tiny, overlapping scales. When exposed to hot water, the scales open. Agitate fiber against fiber and they latch onto each other. Once dry, the scales close, locking the fibers irreversibly. Wool will felt to thicknesses of ¹/₁₆" (1.6mm) to ⅜" (9.5mm).

       How to Felt Wool

      1. Before felting, cut off all buttons. Save them as options for joining the animal’s limbs to their bodies.

      2. Remove all non-wool parts of the garment.

      3. The collar and hem may be handstitched to the coat. They are easily cut away.

      4. Pull off the interfacing. If it does not remove easily, you will have to cut it away. Expect to have less usable fabric as a result.

      5. A harvested coat: the usable wool fabric is on the left, matching buttons are in the center, and on the right, the lining and interfacing that must be discarded.

      6. Place items in pillow protector bags (to prevent any loose wool fibers from clogging the washing machine) and pin the zippers shut.

      7. Wash similar