How to create a felt tray

Before the summer really arrives, we can still take advantage of a few days of uncertain time to talk about a material not exactly fresh, the felt.

In a previous post, we saw the process of getting it comfortably at home from carded wool skeins. The fabric thus obtained can then be molded to obtain bags, brooches, accessories, simply by cutting, gluing or sewing it.
If you are not so familiar with needle and thread though, keep in mind that the nice thing about felt is that it can be shaped even during machining. An example of this is the handbag that I propose you in this post, of which I will explain to you the various stages of realization with the support of the video.

How to Create a Felt Holder

• carded wool of different colors
• waterproof worktop
• bamboo or cane mat (type of tablecloths for breakfast)
• Marseille soap
• Rectangular plastic cutout for the shape of the glove tray
• Plastic basins
• spray
• towels
• scissors

Instructions:

• Unroll your mat on the worktop and lean over the plastic cut-out that will shape your tray. Consider that wool will shrink a lot with the felting treatment, then cut out a sufficiently large silhouette.
• In addition, another thing to bear in mind is that we will work in the negative, namely the reverse side of the glovebox.
• Begin with the decorations, taking a small carded wool tuft of the color of your choice, roll it up on the top and then form a spiral that you will attach to the lower part of the silhouette. We repeat the same operation a second and a third time and we adapt the spirals in the upper and central part of the shape.
• Now gently rest on the decorative spirals a first thick layer of carded wool tufts of a different color than the decorations and on top of them a further layer of a third color.
  in one of the basins prepare a mixture of warm soap and hot water from Marseille with which you will bag your layers of carded wool and then work it with your hands, tapping, rubbing and pressing it (as you can see in the video) patiently until the process of felting begins.
• At this point, turn it all and repeat the same steps on the other side: first the spirals, then the two layers of carded wool in two different colors.
  proceed with the felting of this side as well.
• Now fold the excess wool well at the edges so that the fold fits perfectly with the sides of the silhouette.
• Shrink your work vigorously now to eliminate excess water.
  continue to wring the wool by wrapping it up and pressing it inside the bamboo napkins.
• At this point, cut out a pocket in your work by cutting horizontally just above the middle of the rectangle and two vertically at the sides. In this way you will get the opening of your glove box
• Parade the plastic template
• Turn straight on the fabric
• Repeat the felting operations once again until the desired felt consistency is achieved.
• Now rinse your object well under the cold water jet to block the process of felting.
• At this point you can think of decorations, such as felt balls that act as buttons or a beautiful shoulder strap of your choice (the process is exactly the same)
• Now put your creation in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for one night.
  the next day, if necessary, you can remove any imperfections or lint by finishing the wool with a flap.
• Make holes on the sides to allow the shoulder strap to pass through, which you will lock with knots at the ends, and your glove tray is ready!
• And everything, as I had anticipated, without even the shadow of a stitching! Better than that.