Last weekend it was the rabbits, this weekend it was all eggy! Friday night the Crafty Mamas had wisps of wool among yummy snacks, tea and wine. I tried a different way of felting eggs than I had done last year and it was much easier. Here are some pictures of some of the results of Friday night felting from the mamas.
I wanted to briefly share how I did the eggs. There are a few different methods but I found this method this year pretty easy and fun.
-Take plastic egg, wrap about 5-6 layers of wool roving spread out in layers, crossing each other lengthwise and crosswise alternately. You don't want to see any of the egg. It will be quite big in size compared to the egg.
-Initially I have hot water- not scalding, but good hot water and I dunk the wool wrapped egg into the hot water. This is the most odd part- it seems mushy and you are not sure what to do with it, but just gently passing it back and forth between your hands a few times continually dipping into the hot water as needed. As a few drops of gentle soap like Ivory dish soap. Once it is soaped up you can start to easily pass it back and forth in your hands and dip in warm water as needed. You will feel it start to tighten and felt. You can do this for about 15 minutes continuing to add slight pressure with hands.
-When it feels felted and the fibers seem tight, I rinse it well in running warm water, and then I shock it with cold water rinse. You can then let it dry, or if you want to tighten more, you can put it in nylons or lycra and tie off with yarn, then toss in pillow case in washer in warm wash- this way you can do more than one. Again dry when done.
-Once it is dry, you can create a slit in one side, I like to start the slit with rotary cutter, then use scissors to get the opening like you want. Slip out the plastic egg. I then like to needle felt the edge just a bit, you can add a bit of foam to needle felt against. You could also needle felt any weak spots or decorations at this stage. Do a quick little whip stitch starting in one corner and then do up one side down the other and knot off with the start of your thread- tie off and you are done.
You could add a button at this stage and then just add a little bit of yarn to loop around the button if you want to secure the closure.
Hope that helps you get started- I made this batch this weekend for the shop pretty quickly you will be surprise how fast they go. They are pretty addicting to make- dragon eggs are slated for the end of the month!
I will be listing the weekends eggy work in the next few days, some of the last goodies for the Easter holiday- ahh spring, how I love you so!
