Wet Felting Wool Over Soap

A CrunchyParent.com video tutorial to guide you through the process of wet felting wool batting over soap. A quick and simple project that makes a great craft or gift for the crunchy, crafty, natural, or organic family in your life. Features an adaptation for young children.

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• wet
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[AlmightyBungholio9]

because i find wool to be a bit on the pricy side, could i make the "base"/inside from wrapping yarn to make a shape, then felt over it? (to make forms of dolls for plain felting?) or do you think it better to just do all wool?

[CrunchyParent]

Well, here the base, so to speak is soap and you're using a minimal amount of wool. In the case of making other felted items, you can certainly experiment with using wool scraps (yarn, old sweaters, etc.) as the core and adding wool batting or roving over it. As long as the wool is not superwash it should felt (and be felted to) just fine.

-CP

[pheonixphire]

dosent it get moldy? it seems unsanitary. even though its soap lol

[CrunchyParent]

I've never had a problem with it getting moldy. Wool is naturally antibacterial and antimicrobal, so maybe that even helps things. As with any bar soap, it's best to keep it out of standing water in between uses (like on a soap dish that drains).

[darlingdeedee]

Hello!

I looked on your site for a 'comment' area appropriate for this question and couldn't find one.

I made my first attempt at felted soap and it failed pitifully! I worked on it for about 45 minutes and the wool barely sticks together. Hmm. I'm using dyed roving and Ivory soap (not my first choice in soap, let me tell you) I have some organic clean, undyed carded wool kicking around - I'll give that a try. Should I try a better cured soap? I'm not going to give up! Please advise

-Deedee

[CrunchyParent]

I would suggest that you try batting rather than roving. Roving has been combed to be fairly fine and smooth so it might be sliding over the soap rather than grabbing onto itself if that makes sense.

[sarahislife87]

@pheonixphire no not at all actually people do this just for wool's naturally anti fungal/ bacterial properties.

[LadyFreeSpirit]

attachment parenting is soo cool. Wish more people did that. Do you also homeschool?

[crochethabit]

You can buy wool on e-bay

[lindabsmith]

where can you buy wool in bulk? I want to make some soaps and balls with my toddler, and was hoping to find some plain wool in bulk to use as the center of the balls. Am I looking for roving or batting? Any (online) store suggestions that have decent prices? thanks

[sherrilenett]

Great job! =]

[shedata]

There are tons of ways to do this- I use gloves ( see through- I'm a nurse) and after wrapping the wool- put them into the gloves,add water, then I can squeeze it just like i am washing my hands- around and around. Rinse in differing temps to get rid of the excess soap and tighten it up- lots of fun. Some bars of soap lather very little and do not work well, btw

[69adrummer]

What is "attachment parenting" Shouldn't ALL parents be attached to their kids? Oh wait, I forgot what year it is and the parents that actually ARE attached to their kids are the few and far between! Cool video!

[pheonixphire]

i didnt know that about wool..thanks for sharing!