Confused about what you even need to do to start making felt crafts?
Well of course you are confused! This is all new to you so how would you even know? Crafts have to be taught the same as scuba diving needs to be taught. Crafting with felt is a skill just like many other types of skills.
I thought I'd start a couple part series on felt crafting, because felt is my life and I love to teach what I know.
Felt doesn't have to be your life too but I can give you some tips, tricks and ideas to help you jump in or wade slowly, whichever you prefer and enjoy felt crafting!
Every week I'll post a new part to this felt series. The whole series will cover:
- Types of felt
- How to properly iron felt - sort of already did this post
- Tools needed
- Tips and tricks
- Gluing vs sewing
- The most commonly used stitches in felt crafts
- Skills to learn to get the most out of your craft experience
- How to find good patterns
To make this series even better there will be some FREE PDF's to download to help you along the way.
I'm currently making a couple of downloadable checklists, supply lists and links to stitching videos to do all I can to help you along your crafty way!
The first download I'm making available to you is this informative 8 page e-book I wrote it to help you know what to look for and how to find good quality patterns. I enjoyed writing it and I hope you'll enjoy reading it.
Click the link above or right here and you'll get this FREE guide right in you inbox.
Did you know about my Felt Craft Lovers Group on Facebook?
It's a Facebook felt lovers group for people of all levels sharing tips and cheering each other on. It's a great place to be to talk felt crafts with others. Everyone is welcome! Click here to sign up to join!
This is absolute fact! Yes you can iron felt! I've heard over the years that felt that isn't 100% wool can't be ironed. Well let me smash that myth right now, ALL felt products can be ironed you just have to know which techniques to use for each type of felt.
I'm going to give you my 4 easy tips for ironing felt and how to iron the 3 most popular types of felt.
Here's a little secret: Ironing felt is easier and faster than ironing fabric! Some people find ironing fabric to be soothing and calming, I do not. It's takes so long and I find it annoying, but felt is a dream to iron!
Tips For Ironing All Kinds Of Felt
Step One: Use the right iron temperature for the right type of felt.
Step Two: Keep a dry dishtowel on hand.
Step Three: Always iron on an ironing board and not straight on a table, ( all I'll say is that there was scraping and scrubbing involved ) although a folded bath towel on a table works in a pinch.
Step Four: Don't get crazy if you still see a very light crease after all that ironing, because if you are stuffing that piece for a doll or an plush or an ornament the stretch of the stuffing will completely eliminate that little crease, cause that's how awesome felt is.
How to Iron Craft Store/Eco Felt Sheets
I started out as most beginning crafters do buying the 9" x 12" sheets of low grade craft felt from the craft store. It's cheap, comes in lots of bright colors and is easy to learn to work with. It's also 100% polyester and made from recycled water bottles, which means it's plastic and you can melt it with an iron, if you don't know what you are doing.
Most of the time you buy this felt flat and then store it flat so no ironing is necessary but sometime pieces get rolled under and creased when you are shoving too much felt into a drawer...trust me I know of what I speak on the stuffing and shoving of supplies.
See wrinkled felt and that's no fun!
Then you'll need to break out the iron.
While eco felt is the trickiest to iron because of the plastic nature of the product, a little care and the right iron temperature is all you need.
Turn your iron to the Poly setting with steam and move quickly across the felt ironing on both sides of the crease or wrinkle.
For wrinkles in craft felt. My iron doesn't show that you can use steam on this Poly setting but you can and I do it all the time.
If the crease is very deep you'll have to get that dishtowel I told you about, place it over the felt and re-iron holding the iron in place longer. That dish towel will keep bad things from happening to the felt. Just don't leave it there for long periods of time or walk away or that felt and dish towel are goners.
Unless an elephant has been sitting on this felt, the crease or wrinkle will come out super easy and fast. I only ironed the worst side of this piece since it's just going back into an over stuffed drawer.
Look at that nice flat side. Ironed and ready to craft with!
A warning: the plastic fibers in this type of felt will melt a tiny bit when you iron it, which is perfectly fine and nothing to worry about. I actually prefer that little bit of melt because it makes cutting that type of felt less messy and makes the piece a tiny bit more durable.
How To Iron Premium Poly/Eco Felt
Premium poly felt is slightly thicker than craft felt, is available in more colors, is stronger and more durable, is softer and you can buy it by the yard or sheets. It's also made out of recycled water bottles but is a higher quality product than craft felt. It's a personal favorite of mine because of the softness.
Because you can buy this felt by the yard and storing it flat is next to impossible, at least in my studio, you will have deep creases and wrinkles no matter what. They are still softer creases than you get with wool blend felt though.
I once heard a crafter say to arrange your patterns around the creases and then throw that creased part away?! Girl Scout swear I read this on someone's blog once! Apparently an iron was an unknown appliance to them. I'm a penny pincher, frugal or just plain cheap but I will use every speck of felt I possibly can so I iron my felt.
For wrinkles and lighter creases on Poly felt. Use steam, it really helps and I use it on Poly setting all the time.
Again turn your iron to the Poly setting with steam and iron both sides with some pressure as if you were ironing cotton fabric, but keep that iron moving.
If the crease is deep and still visible and drives you nuts like it does me, you can bump up your iron to Blend setting still with steam and iron the crease again on both side with pressure being careful not to hold the iron on too long. A couple of passes with the iron on the felt should get rid of the crease.
After ironing the Poly felt. So smooth and ready to go!
How To Iron Wool Blend Felt
Wool blend felt is pretty awesome and is so durable but not nearly as soft as the premium eco felt. It usually has a blend of rayon in it and is thicker than the premium felt, which means it cuts beautifully with nice sharp edges. It also comes in sheets and yards and at some point you will need to iron it.
I'm not sure if wool blend felt doesn't wrinkle as easy as other felt or if I just store it flatter and with more care since it's so much more expensive than the other felt, but the creases are usually deeper than Craft and Poly felt and I don't see any wrinkles. I find it the easiest of all the felt to iron and the results are amazing!
Turn that iron on to Blend setting with steam if the crease is really light or Wool setting with steam for a deeper crease and give those creases a good couple of passes on both sides with a little pressure. I personally always use the Wool setting for my Wool Blend felt. It only takes a couple of seconds ( like 3 seconds ) and then you're done.
I have an off brand digital iron I got at Aldi's in a pinch. If you have a super fancy ultra hot quilting iron then using that dishtowel on each type of felt might be a wise idea.
In case you were wonder what that blue thing I'm ironing on is, it's a small table top ironing board. It's for dorm rooms and I got it 50% off at Joann's last year. Love this thing!
Disclaimer: My tips are to be used as a general guide for ironing felt. I don't know your iron like you do, so practice on a scrap piece of felt if you don't feel confident at first and you'll soon be ironing felt like a pro!
So now that you know the 4 easy tips about ironing felt, get out there and iron and create something awesome!
Want to join other felt minded folks? Click her to sign up to my awesome Felt Facebook Group
