How to Felt a Sweater for Re-Purposing

Give your old, your tired, your moth-eaten sweaters a new chance at life! They make great blankets, hats, scarves, stuffed animals, catnip toys, mittens, slippers, and more, once they've been felted. Felted wool is less scratchy than the original item, and has a delightful fluffiness. It will not fray or ravel when cut, so you don't have to be careful about things like hems or being good at sewing.

First, check the tag. This offer of new life only applies to sweaters that are mostly wool, cashmere, merino (that's wool), angora, or other felt-able fiber. 80% animal fiber or more seems to work well. Some wool sweaters have been treated to resist shrinkage. This is bad. If the tag says, "Machine Wash" - the sweater is unlikely to felt.

Second, take a good look at the sweater. How big is it? Can you see light through the stitches? Is it stretchy? Is it fuzzy? Notice these things so you can evaluate changes to the sweater after washing.

Next, turn the sweater inside out (to confuse any crazy lint that might attempt to stick to your sweater) and throw it in the washing machine. I mix 'em in w/my regular laundry, but I'm not much of a laundry stickler. It's up to you. For sure you want to wash on warm or hot, and use laundry soap - powdered soap if you have it.

For thick sweaters, a short wash might be enough. For thin sweaters, I set the washer to agitate longer. (Counter intuitive, I know, but it seems those bulky sweaters are just READY to felt, while elegant light-weight sweaters protest about it not being very ladylike to fuse into soft, fluffy, feltiness.) When the wash is done, take a look at the sweater. Are the stitches somewhat blurry? Can you see a lot of light through it? Has it shrunk quite a bit from its original size? If your answers are Yes, No, and Yes, your sweater is felted. Hang it up to dry.

If you CAN see a lot of light through it, or the sweater is still stretchy and close to its original size - you have likely not achieved felting. At this point, I toss the sweater in the dryer to see if that helps. If not - this sweater may not be capable of felting. But give it one more try in the washer, just to be fair.