Felt and Its Uses by Craig Audley

Feltwork is a universal craft; the people of many nations have used felt as a substitute for leather for centuries. Although felt is not such a hard wearing material as leather, it can be used in place of it for making many things such as slippers, gloves, belts, handbags and waistcoats. These are only a few illustrations of the use of felt as a substitute material, but it also has many uses in its own right, especially in the making of soft felt toys for children.
Working with felt is a clean easy craft, which will amply repay for time expended in making articles for pleasure and profit.

Felt is made of compressed wool and is therefore, a very warm material. It is not expensive and one of the chief delights in working with this material lies in the wonderful range of shades which are obtainable at very reasonable prices. There are several ways of buying felt. It can be purchased by the yard in widths of 36 inches and 54 inches and it can also be purchased in squares of various sizes; two very popular sizes are 24 inch squares and 9 inch squares. Smaller squares and bags of scraps are obtainable and these are very useful for some work. Also mottled shades can be obtained, providing a useful range of colours for making small articles such as dress accessories, etc.

There are several qualities of felt, ranging from very thick carpet felt to very thin embroidery felt. As with the purchasing of any other craft material, it will be found that it is most economical in the long run to purchase good quality felts. Good quality felt should be of even texture and this can be tested by holding the felt to a light: there should be no thin patches in good quality felt. When working with felt, it should be considered, that the colour is the chief characteristic of the material and mute and dull colours have no place in this craft, which originated from the Peasant crafts of old European and Scandinavian countries. Contrast in colour should always be the aim of the craftworker in working out-colour schemes for this material.

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