Thursday, July 3, 2014

"Deborah-Style" Wet-Felted Slippers- Part 1 of 2

                                       
                        When I visited my lovely friend, Deborah in England this Spring...



                                   ...there was one project that I just had to make...

                                    ...a pair of her wonderful wet-felted slippers! 
                  
                         ****************************************************************
                                                Preparing the foam slipper resist.                                           



                                   Placing pre-felt squares onto the resist surface...



                              ...and covering them with a layer of orange wool batt.



                                            Flipping the project to side two...

                                          ...adding pre-felt embellishments...



                                                  ...and additional wool.    



                                     After adding a layer of red wool to each side...

                                               ...and felting for some time...



                                   ...I cut the slippers apart and removed the resist...



                                              ...then turned them inside-out...
                                       
                                           ...and continued the felting process.



                                                     The fully felted slippers...



                                              ...now, with asymmetrical cuts.



                                          Rubbing the cut edges to 'heal' them.


                    
                                          Next time: I add green leather soles...

                                         ...and a button-and-cord closure.

                                     

10 comments:

FeltersJourney said...

My goodness Heather, what was a surprise.. coming into blogger and having a photo of myself looking back at me lol!
That was a fun day..
xoxo

Heather Woollove said...

Deborah-Hahaha...I found that photo of you with the slipper ones when I went to write this post. I had also forgotten about it, so it was a surprise to both of us...
...but happy memories, indeed!! (Miss you!)

Rachel said...

Oh, they look good - really comfortable!

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks, Rachel...they really are! :)

Unknown said...

Nice tutorial! Quick and concise!! Thanks for sharing and I'm looking forward to the second part! Beautiful boots by the way!!

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks, Simona!!

WonderWhyGal said...

I do love your slippers. After I met you, I tried making a pair with my Alpaca. I had one good slipper and one bad. Me thinks I need to try again.

Heather Woollove said...

Yes, Andrea! If you make them as a 'set' like I did, they should come out pretty uniformly. ;)

Michelle said...

Hi Heather, I tried using this style of resist. I used merino and the shrinkage was crazy. I have given them to my daughter...who is 11 and has smaller feet than the intended recipient.
I followed Pat Spark's measurements, not right for me.
Did you work out the template? And if so have you got any advice about it?
I want to do it again, have done 3 pairs so far...very labour intensive ..all not right. Bonkers. :-)

Thanks
Michelle

Heather Woollove said...

Michelle-I don't have any firm measurement advice, but having made them both ways, I do think it's best to make them in one piece, like with this pair, rather than as two discrete slippers.
The 'foot end' of the slipper should be at least 1 inch longer at the heel and 2 inches longer at the toe than your actual foot measurement (draw around your foot first with the pencil coming straight down from the side of your foot, not 'in')...
...and the height of the resist at the mid-foot region should be 1.5 times the circumference of your foot at the widest area, mid arch, but divided in half.
You can make them as tall as you like, but remember to have the resist 'angle out' a bit at the mid-point (where the slippers will be cut apart), so that your foot will fit into them.
I suggest making a pair with crummy wool batts, quickly, as a sample for size first, and then make adjustments from there.
You may even want to make a pair of mules first (simpler) to check basic sizing.
I've made quite a few pairs of slippers, so search my blog for slippers or mules for extra notes.
Let me know how it all comes out! Hxx