Felt Experiment

For some time I've wanted to find out how some fabric would felt so before incorporating them into a large piece and learning afterward that I didn't like the effects, I made a small "sampler."

The fabrics in question were: a piece of my recent shibori dyed chiffon (red), a piece of polyester chiffon(brown) and a bunch of hand dyed silk ribbons. The background wool for felting was a deep mixed purple in merino - very soft.

What I love - the shibori piece is fabulous! even though the beginning ribbon/fabric colors were quite diverse, the end result of the wool migrating through the fibers blends it all together and tones them all down very nicely. In fact, I would use these again to make a great belt. What I would change - variegated colors really worked best and I would cover any "cut" edges; I loved the part of the ribbon that is right along the bottom edge - you can see how nicely it puckered up alongside the brown polyester although it did take a lot of work to felt it in. I have a ton of the thinner silk ribbon in soft flower pastels (for silk ribbon embroidery), so I'll overdye it and use it more in my felting. I can see myself making fabrics for a really fabulous jacket!