Felted Wool Scarf

I tried my hand at felting wool. It took some reconfiguring of my initial ideas to come up with something wearable. Now I love it.

Gene and the girls went with me to Goodwill and we scoured the store for wool sweaters. I brought home about 6 sweaters for about $20. I washed them in super hot soap and water twice. That was my first mistake. I ended out with toddler size sweaters and really stiff material. OOOPS!

Initially I wanted to make a messenger bag... but I wanted one bigger than a dollar bill. So, I cut the sweaters into strips and sewed them together. My original design had unfinished rough edges but it looked so bad... I thought the trash was my only option left. It was a depressing thought because I had put a couple of hours of work into this failed idea. So I set the hunk of material to the side and brainstormed. This is what I ended out with... a lined scarf with lots of cool do-dads and stitching. The loops and buttons are positioned so I can wear the scarf in several different styles.

Now I am using the felted scraps to make rosette pins and hair-bobs (that's what we call a hair accessory in my house). I'll show some of those later.