Carded Batts in Wet Felting

[Deleted]

Hello everyone,

(1) when a person uses a Batt for the 3rd and 4th layer of their project, is it recommended that the batt be torn apart like when you would be laying down the roving???

(2) or would it be OK to just lay Down your batt whole and just tear off the excess along the edges if it is to wide???  If the batt would wet felt OK could you lay down your 4th layer in the same direction or opposite direction or would it matter???  Thanks for your help. 

[MTRuth]

It really depends on the thickness of the batt. I usually have pretty thick batts and I will peel off layers so they are fairly even and then lay them in opposite directions. You still need to pay attention to thin areas and add wool if necessary. Batts will felt fine just by themselves but many times you'll find that areas are not even in the batt and as long as you watch for this, you should be fine.

[Shepherdess]

You batt looks like an art bat. so I don't think you would want to tear it apart. As Ruth said watch for even thickness and go ahead. be carefull when using more than one batt to cover a surface make sure the are really well butted up or you may end up with a gap. If you can tear a little from the underside of one and the top of the other and overlap them it is best.

[zed]

I've always pulled wool from the batt and used it in a similar way to tops or roving etc.

I wouldn't waste fancy batts like that using them on 'under' layers. It looks very well combed with the fibres all aligned, so I would probably try to split it (peel off the top layer, like Ruth says) and just use it as the top layer. Use plain wool underneath.

[Deleted]

Hello Everyone, it is Fancy Art Batt I had special made for my felted purse class. Thanks Ruth, Ann and Zed for your expert opinion. Greatly appreciated. So I understand that you would use 3 layers of roving then the last layer use the fancy batt and fill in where there were thin areas. It was way wider than the purse width so I had to take the extra off. More about my wet felted purse class "Soon"....

[Shepherdess]

yes that seems like the right amount of wool for a purse. you want it to be sturdy now thin and floaty.

[Lois]

I often unroll a natural plain batt carefully and use it as the bottom layer for most of my projects, certainly saves time, as it is much quicker then laying out roving. Ruth is right though, in that you have to watch for thin areas and uneven spots. That batt is gorgeous! lease be sure to post pictures when the purse is done.

[Deleted]

I just recently discovered batts and especially art batts and I really like them a lot...