FAQ
FAQ
What is felt?
Felt (also known as nonwoven fabric) is made by applying heat, wetting with a surfactant (detergent) and applying pressure and agitation of various fibers together. The history of felt dates back to remains that have been found in Turkey that date to 6500 B.C. making felt the oldest known manmade fabric.
What fibers are used in felt?
Felt can be made from many types of fibers. These fibers include animal furs or hair to synthetic fibers. The most common by far is sheep wool (Our webmaster used to raise sheep and was a three time 4H grand champion so he has a firsthand understanding sheep wool.). A new felt exotic felt to come out is made using bamboo fibers. Synthetic fibers are also used such as rayon, which is a resin made from tree pulp, and acrylic which is commonly used in craft felts.
What types of felts are there?
There are 100% wool felts but the cost is quite high and color selection very small. Our manufacturer currently only has 16 colors of 100% wool felt available. Blended wool felt which is made from wool and rayon is however the most commonly used. This blending allows it to have such a large number of colors and at a much lower cost. The other felt that is in wide use is acrylic felt. This felt is composed of colored acrylic fibers and is much stiffer and not as soft compared to wool felts.
What kinds of wool felt do we carry?
We carry blended wool felts in 165 colors with three variations of blend - 20% wool / 80% rayon (part numbers PW1XX) or 35% wool / 65% rayon (part number PW2XX) and 70% wool / 30% rayon (this felt is very thin around ~1mm and part numbers PW3XX). We also stock 100% wool felts (part numbers PWVXXX currently this is our heavier weight felt).
How thick is the felt we carry?
Most of our felts are all around 1/8” or 2mm thick. Several people ask about thicker felt and our our supplier does carry thick wool felt that is around 1/4" thick in the came colors and blends as our regular felt. 100% wool felt is around 3mm thick. Most very thick over 1/4" felt is stiffer and mostly used more in industry also known as industrial felt.
What sizes do you sell?
We carry wool felt in 9” x 12” or 12” x 18” sheets (Note: two 9” x 12” sheets = one 12” x 18” sheet), ¼ Yardage, ½ Yardage, ¾ Yardage, and Yardage (Yardage = 36” x 36” and you can get 6 – 12” x 18” or 12- 9” x 12” sheets per yard). We also carry or can order 72” wide yardage (Note: 72” wide yardage has a min. order of 2 yards. If you want 1 yard just order 2 yards of standard yardage (36” x 72”) If the color felt or size is not in stock please use the contact us form and request a special order. This takes 2 to 3 weeks to ship.
Our system unfortunately does not like partial pieces. If you need say 1 and (¼, ½, or ¾) yards just order one yard then there is a drop down box that you can add (¼, ½, or ¾) example order 2 ½ Yards select yardage enter 2 in the quantity box then below the yardage option there is a select drop down box select "Yardage Plus" select the ½ yard and your done.
What is felted wool?
Felted wool is when you take a woven wool fabric and essentially shrinking the heck out of it. If you wash a wool outfit in the washing machine and accidently toss it in the dryer your small children have a new felted wool outfit. To felt wool you want to wash it in hot water in preferably a top loading washer (the agitation will help with the felting process). A front loading washer can be used but the felt may not become as felted as it would with the top loader. Once it has been washed, throw it in the dryer on the hottest setting you have and let it run for half a cycle. I recommend this because of the amount of lint that will be released. My dryer runs for about an hour so I run it for half an hour, clean the lint screen and then run it for the last half hour. This helps prevent the lint build up from starting a dryer fire. Felting will shrink wool and make it thicker and denser hence the name felted wool.
Can I wash wool felt?
Yes if you wash our wool felt in hot water and dry in a dryer it will shrink. It does create an interesting result as the surface of the wool felt becomes bubbly or lumpy looking. If you are just looking to get it cleaned then you should dry clean it only.
Can I come back to an order I have started?
Yes - if you have created an account and login. Cart information is updated from the last time you were logged in. You could also save items to your wish list.
Where can I find coupons?
We strive to offer the best prices on our products. We do post coupon codes on our Facebook page on a quarterly basis - just click the Like us on facebook button on our homepage.