The Dodo Blog

As you know, garments are among the most difficult items to felt. Correctly calculating the shrinkage rate for such big pieces and guaranteeing the clothes will fit the wearer aren’t easy tasks and require precise work.

So, every felt maker realizes it takes a lot of expertise (and I’d even say some bravery ) to take on such a complex project.

Nevertheless, it’s tempting to want to try. Even if you don’t intend to felt garments professionally, I bet at some time or another you’ve thought about making a piece of clothing you could proudly wear. Am I right?

For the reasons I’ve mentioned and because I don’t have enough room at home, until now I’ve only felted some simple sweaters designed from knit ones I already owned.

But, with Winter about to arrive, I’ve been thinking about how much I’d like to make my own wet felted jacket.

So, I decided to finally order a book that’s been on my ‘to buy list’ for long....

I’m working on a new class that is meant to help felt makers go all the way (smoothly) from total beginner to intermediate. If you’ve recently started wet felting or you’ve been felting for a while, but still feel like there are many gaps in your knowledge, this may be for you.

But I’ll need some time until I can offer it, since I haven’t created it yet. I’m working on the class outline for now. And I’d like to invite you to participate in the creation of the class materials. Just click here or on the image below to access the list of topics. Please let me know which ones are important to you and what you think may still be missing.

Just a last note: I’m considering an intermediate felter, someone who knows all the fundamentals, and is able to confidently felt on a resist, knows how to add fiber, fabric and other materials for embellishment and texture. All this while achieving high quality felt.

Thank you for taking a moment to...

Have you noticed the BABY classes are back?

Many of you have been asking to have the baby booties class separately. You’ve also showed interest in having it available “on demand”, which is understandable, since babies grow fast

So, I’ve listened to your requests and created two separate classes: “Comfy Baby Booties & Tiny Baby Mittens” and “Sweet Baby Jacket & Daisy baby Hat”. They’re already available and can be purchased at any time.

They’re now in a DIY version, and the videos and PDFs are downloadable. Just click on the images below to be taken to the course information.

Whether you’re planning to enroll in the class or not, here’s some information that may be useful for you.

As I reopened the baby courses to enrolment, it was brought to my attention that some of the designs are not compliant with the safety standards of many countries. I was very grateful for these contacts, since this is...

I think the importance of prefelts in wet felting is sometimes underestimated. Prefelts are extremely useful and there’s no end to how you can apply them in your wet felting projects. So, mastering how to make them exactly as you want for a particular piece can massively improve your work.

Let’s have a look at some of the many ways prefelts can be used, as well as a couple of tips to apply them successfully.

PREFELTS FOR NUNO FELTING

In most cases, nuno felted pieces decorated with crisp designs are created with prefelts. But prefelts are a bit more difficult to attach to silk than unfelted wool.

So, to make it work, you need to:

• use thin prefelts,
• felt slowly and gently,
• and work with cold water,

to give the wool fibers time to migrate into the silk.

The most effective felting technique in this case is sanding, since it creates a lot of pressure, that accelerates the fiber migration through the fabric.

If you run into issues, and some parts of your prefelts...

As you know, wet felting has a long History. But it’s also true that some of the most incredible advancements only happened in the last decades.

After wet felting was rediscovered as a promising material for designers sometime in the 80s, people of all backgrounds have picked it up and reshaped it with fresh ideas.

We’re all incredibly lucky that some amazing creatives have explored this ancient technique and given it their own touch, adding other materials to wool, and fusing other textile techniques with felt.

I think we shouldn’t take this for granted, so I’m always interested in discovering who are the artists responsible for this rich world we now have at our fingertips.

One of these amazing artists is Polly Stirling. You might not know who she is. But I’m sure you know the technique she created. Polly is none other than the inventor of nuno felting.

Need I say anything else?

If you are interested in knowing how it all happened, here’s a...

Nuno felting is an extremely versatile technique, especially because it fuses two different materials with different qualities: wool and fabrics.

This alone allows us to create infinite combinations and play with texture, transparency, color, patterns, and variations of drapability. It’s even possible to apply other materials between the wool and the fabrics, in particular if you’re using transparent fabrics.

So, I wanted to show you some of my pieces, to give you concrete examples of how you can use nuno felting to play with all these possibilities in your own work, and hopefully spark some new ideas.

To make things easier, I’ve divided my pieces into 3 groups and talk about each one separately.

1. Examples of finer pieces, in which you use the fabric as a base and then apply wool just on some areas. Obviously, this is the variant that has more drapability and transparency. So, it’s particularly good for scarves and shawls, or blouses and dresses, as well as...

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about nuno felting. I know that one challenge that often comes up is getting the wool to attach perfectly to the fabric. So, I’ve created a short video with my 3 most effective tips to ensure that wool and fabric will bond.

Choosing the right materials is crucial, but there are a couple of simple techniques that make a huge difference. These techniques are tried and tested in my own work, and I'm confident that, if you implement them, you’ll never have to worry about this problem again.

If you're following my Instagram account, you know that I've been sharing photos of my new baby items for some time :)

The idea of creating more felted pieces for kids has been on my mind for long. I just think it's the perfect medium for babies: soft wool and silk, natural non-toxic fibers, environmentally friendly materials, washable and long lasting products. Just perfect!

In the past I've created workshops on baby hats, play food and - one of my best sellers - baby booties. I wanted to expand this collection with more complex pieces that could also allow me to work with more advanced felting techniques. And that's what I've been preparing for the last couple of months: an online course on how to wet felt your baby's booties and jackets.

This is a 3-week, step-by-step video course, that walks you through all you need to know to felt your baby's booties and jackets in 3 different sizes, 3 design variations and 3 felting techniques. It includes:

• Booties' downloadable pattern in 3...

Just wanted to let you know you can enroll for the Wet Felted Hats Masterclass from May 15th to May 19th.

The course will start May 22nd and will have a duration of 8 weeks.

If you've been wanting to improve your hat felting skills, stay tuned for the details tomorrow :)

Talk soon!

Vanda

As you might know, I created a new course recently: the Wet Felted Hats Masterclass for all of you who’d like to refine your hat making skills.

There was a first edition in February/March, which I launched as a test course. I had built a base structure and invited people to join as Founding Members to help me fully develop the best class possible. So, it grew considerably, since I added new modules, videos and other resources. And now it’s ready for the second edition.

The enrollment will start in a few days, so I wanted to let you know what the Masterclass now looks like.

This next edition will include a total of 9 modules, walking you through:

• How to draw your own patterns with the right size
• How to modify the base patterns to create new hat shapes
• How to felt ANY hat WITHOUT a hat block
• How to felt a hat WITH a hat block
• How to create the perfect brim
• How to lay the wool so that you don't have to cut the brim
• How to embellish the hat surface with nuno felt
• How...