Wet felting on already felted item

[andrea]

Hello everyone! Beginner felter here.
I am planning of making a pixie hat for my son, with flaps for the ears and small spikes throughout the top. I need advice on attaching the flaps (do i make/full them separately leaving ends fluffy, then attach to fulled hat? Will they wet felt to an already fulled hat or so i attach them on the prefelt stage? But what about when I roll the hat?)

And also for the spikes, should i just attach them by needle felting them once hat is dry or can they be wet felted onto the hat as its drying (and already fulled)

I’m having so much fun needle/wet felting! Thank you for any tips!!

[Pandagirl]

Are you planning to make a resist for the hat? The spikes and ears can be attached before final fulling. Look at the decoration pic in this blog I did making a handbag. Notice how the bottom I pullled the wool out from the bottom and when atttaching it I put more wool over and took my time rubbing it to get the wool to mesh. You can do the same with the spikes prepare them ahead and again leave dry wool at the bottom splayed out. I hope this helps. Spikes can be made using a small mat leaving the dry ends out one side. Good luck. I look forward to seeing your progress.

feltingandfiberstudio.com/2014/08/02/from-batts-to-a-handbag/

[andrea]

Thank you for your reply and tips!
Yes, I plan on using a resist, and then cut and put a gertie ball inside after it shrinks some, then attach the spikes and ear flaps during that step. I will post process pics! ❤️

[lyn]

Hello Andrea! It's lovely to hear that you're enjoying your felt making.

Once an item is fulled completely you can't then add loose fibres as they don't have anything to attach to.
If you want to add anything to a fulled item, you would need to either attach it by needle felting or stitching.

You might find this time lapse video interesting (wet felting an elf hat).
link

I know there's a blog post out there somewhere where a blogger shows in detail how to make a hat as you described, but I've searched and can't find it.
Perhaps another member knows of it?

[Shepherdess]

You can add spices before or after. if you do them before wrap them in little bits of plastic and check them often. Anything you Don't want to stick add plastic between it and the hat. Here's a picture of a cat cave I did with spikes on it.

[andrea]

More wonderful tips, thank you so much 💖

Another thing that came to mind, The hat is going to be yellow (son’s favorite color) but I might make the inside purple. Is there a technique to avoid the marrying of the fibers so the colors don’t get muddled together? I would prefer them not to for the hat, but if need be then Ill just keep it all yellow 😅

[Shepherdess]

The migration is what makes the fibers tangle. You can reduce how much it shows by shaving the surface a little after its dry but it will show some. Fulling slowly by rolling and rubbing also helps. when you throw a piece you seem to get a lot more fuzzies on the surface.

[lyn]

It also depends on how 'hairy' the wool is - hairy fibres will poke through anything! I find that using merino fibres I can get two distinct colours - one each side.

[Nettie Cross]

I would wet felt the ears separately, leaving a raw edge where I could needle felt them to the hat.