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Felt a swatch first. This
will tell you a lot about how to bag is
going to felt. Sometimes, felting
with a front loading machine takes a
little longer than with a top loading
machine. You are not going to be
able to open the machine and check your
progress.
Place your bag into a zippered
pillowcase before placing in washing
machine. We recommend that you
DO NOT use a mesh bag, as these bags
sometimes act like sandpaper and can
imbed unwanted fiber particles into your
bag. We also recommend that you
include a Shout Color Catcher in the
zippered pillowcase with the bag.
Include towels or old jean in the
machine to help with agitation.
No Spin Cycle Available.
If your machine has a no spin cycle, use
that and check the bag after each cycle
or try the method below.
If you only have spin cycles, here
what we do: After placing bag into zipper
pillowcase, we toss it in the machine
with a couple of towels and some old
jean. We run it through a complete
regular hot/cold wash cycle, letting it
spin on "regular spin" -- NOT "fast
spin". Then we switch to the
pre-wash cycle (may be called pre-soak
on your machine). We run it
through on hot pre-wash, quickly remove,
shape, and run it through on cold
pre-wash. Our pre-wash cycle is 12
minutes long. Don't let the bag
cool off; it needs the cold water shock
to help is shrink. We repeat this until the
fabric is the texture that we want.
If the swatch felted really fast on the
first time through, we will go straight
to the pre-wash cycle, skipping running
it through a complete regular wash
cycle. Swatching is important!
In our pre-wash cycle the water drains
but it doesn't spin, so there is a lot
of water in the article at the end of
the cycle. But you aren't pulling it out
of the machine that's full of water. If
you were felting with a top loader you
would be pulling it out of the machine
when it is full of water and checking,
but with a front loader, we have to do
some "work around" tricks. So far we've
found the pre-wash cycle to be a good
trick.
Between each cycle, remove the bag
and shape it. This reduces
wrinkles and self-felting issues.
As it flops around in the machine, it
gets all twisted, that's why it is
important to shape it each time.
When you bag is the desired shape and
texture, blog the excess water with
towels and shape it to dry.
No Promises! This is the
method that works for us. We make
NO guarantees that it will work
for you. Your machine, water
temperature, etc., will be different
from ours. Experiment with a swatch.
Other Questions: Email us
at
patterns@felted-bags.com
Print These Felting Tips
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