A bar of natural, wet-felted soap, affectionately known as "soap in a sweater," takes just thee materials to make - soap, fiber and water - and can be made in about 20 minutes, plus additional drying time. Not only is the process quick, easy and fun, but also, there is plenty of room for imagination and creativity. Whether you make one bar of soap for a special gift, several "sweater-sudsers" for your personal home supply, or dozens of bars to sell as unique, "green" handcrafts, soap felting makes a safe, simple, hands-on home project for kids, families and crafters.
'Soap in a Sweater' Makes a Great Personal Gift and is a Natural for Hardworking Hands
Once finished, these one-of-a-kind, natural, handcrafted items make wonderful and unexpected hostess gifts, birthday presents, stocking stuffers, valentines, grab-bag goodies, teacher thank yous, co-worker gifts, and more. Moreover, felted soap, provides tub and hand-washing entertainment for kids while ensuring healthy, clean bodies.
And, the washcloth-and-soap-in-one naturally exfoliates skin with fibers gentle enough for sensitive skin. With stiffer fibers, felted soaps can make excellent heavy-duty "scrubbing bars" for exfoliating knees, feet and elbows, or for hands in the kitchen, workshop, studio, potting shed... just about everywhere people toil with their hands.
Best of all, because a felted bar is less slippery and easier for hands to grip, it is likely to be completely used-up, as opposed to unfelted soaps which leave behind a wasted dollop of soap at the end of each bar. Plus, when the soap inside the felt gone, the felt still remains intact... great to use as a bath scrubbie or tub toy.
Felt Colors and Patterns Limited Only by Imagination
In addition to limitless options in terms of fiber colors and combinations, once one becomes proficient, it may be enjoyable to experiment with pattern, texture, and even three-dimensional shapes each unique bar is crafted. How about weaving colors for a beautiful water color effect, or making a plaid-like pattern over the top of the bar? Or, try creating a felted face- or animal-shaped bar. One is limited only buy materials, creativity... and practice.
Felting Fiber for Soap Must be Protein-based
Wet felting only works with wool or other protein-based fibers, such as llama or angora. About two ounces of suitable roving, batts, carded wool or other fibers is enough to cover four bars of soap.
New Zealand Corriedale, Merino and Romney are good wool choices for soap felting. A fast-felting wool that makes a very soft, less hairy felt is Merino. Also, Merino is known for its sheen, superb taking of color (dyes), and its huge range of available colors. So, if you like the softer texture, felting possibilities with Merino wools are endless. Do note, if you are using bright or extremely deep colors, like dyed reds or blacks, for example, you may want to check for color-fastness, or at least be aware that some color leaching may occur after each use. If there is some color bleeding, usually, just a quick rinse in cold water stops the color wash.
For a more hardy, loufa-like scrub as well as a relatively fast felting process, try Cotswold, Icelandic, Gotland, Scottish Black Faced, or Karakul fibers. Many Australian fibers are excellent for wet felting. Try combining several types of fibers; perhaps, a loftier wool on the bottom wrap, and a softer wool on the outside, to produce a spongy effect that many people find especially pleasing... experiment to see what you prefer.
If you do not have a wool or craft shop in your area that carries felting materials, an online search for "felting supplies" or "fiber arts" will turn-up numerous suppliers who can ship materials to the home.
Cured Olive Oil, Castile and Goat's Milk Soaps: Naturals that Make Fabulous Felted Bars
Whether scented or unscented, handmade and specialty boutique soaps make for lovely felted bars. For a truly "green" bar, try a handmade olive oil, castile, or goat's milk soap. In addition to being safe for the environment and good for skin, the characteristics of each lend them to working extremely well in wet-bar felting. By contrast, soaps that dissolve easily in water do not work as successfully. For example, glycerine types may become too mushy, and products marketed as "body bars" will not enable the felting process to reach its best potential.
Also, pay attention to bar shape: oval or rounded shapes are ideal because they do not have sharp corners which are more difficult to adequately cover, and keep covered, with fibers. Still, bars with hard, squared corners may be covered carefully during the felting process, and/or the corners may be rounded ahead of time.
If you do not make your own soap (ahead of time) or have a natural soap maker or other local soap source at your disposal, check online for natural soap suppliers. Also, Ivory brand bar soap, as well as other manufactured brands, take felting successfully. If you are felting soap for resale, you my find that an extremely inexpensive soap brand works sufficiently; or, you may want to spend a little more for handmade bars, concentrating on "all natural" or "green" branding for your felted gifts and/or products.
In all cases, the very best candidates for felting are soaps which have sat out, unwrapped, to cure and harden for a couple of months. Even store-bought soap is best if unwrapped and left out to cure for a month-and-a-half or more before you begin the felting process.
Making Felted Soap Takes Just Minutes
The idea is to wet and work the fibers around the bar of soap until they shrink and weave themselves together, eventually, shrinking into a tight form around the bar. Different felting materials will take different times to shrink; however, the entire process should take no more than 15 to 20 minutes overall.
This process of shrinking will continue as you use your finished felted soap to clean... as the soap bar diminishes from use, the felt will continue to encase the soap and shrink around it. After each use, quickly rinse felted soap in cold water and leave to dry in a soap drainer or bath/kitchen rack for best results.
Follow these simple steps and recommendations to ensure your first felted soap is a beautiful and creative success:
Materials to Felt Around a Bar of Soap:
- Soap bar
- Felting fiber
- Towel
- Bowl of hot water
Optional Soap Felting Materials:
- Felting board, felting mat or washboard
- Panty hose, nylon, soft screen or similar material
- Drying rack
Ahead-of-time Instructions for Wet-Felting Soap:
- Acquire a bar of soap. A hard, well-cured bar that has sat out, unwrapped, for a couple of months, works best.
- If your bar is square-shaped or rectangular, you may want to file down and round sharp corners before beginning... no worries if it isn't neat; no one will see your soap bar corners in the finished project.
- Acquire your natural fibers in the form of roving, batts, or carded wool. Feltable yarn, or something similar, may prove handy and decorative as well. Generally, two ounces is enough to cover four bars of soap. If you prefer colors, three colors per bar is a safe way to begin. Three versions of the same color family make for an attractive bar (ie, light blue, medium blue and dark blue, or three different creamy neutrals). Of course, you can go all out an opt for a riot of color...
Process Instructions for Wet-Felting Soap:
- Lay out your fiber pieces.
- Lay out a towel or optional drying rack.
- Fill a medium to large bowl with hot water.
- Grab a hard soap bar and wrap larger fiber pieces around the bar; first one way (lengthwise, for example); then, with another piece of wool or fiber, the other way (widthwise); and again the first way (lengthwise). All the surfaces should be tightly covered (if you are familiar with traditional felting, your wrap should be tighter than what you would normally do). With a square or rectangular bar, pay particular attention that the corners are well-covered.
- Once the entire bar is covered, if you like, add decorative strips or small pieces of wool on top of the main wrap. You may add a strip of pencil roving or feltable yarn, wrapped around the entire bar, to help hold it together at first. The little "safety strap" will work as a decorative accent in the finished bar.
- Optional: If you are using hose or netting, carefully wrap or place your bar inside the material. Keep the netting material tight around the fabric-covered bar. The purpose of the netting/hose is simply to help hold everything together on the bar, and not all over your hands, as you begin rubbing. You will take the net off when it's holding together well enough that you don't need it. Note that netting causes wrinkles on the felting, so it may need to be unwrapped occasionally; or, you may prefer to skip this step altogether.
- With your hand, or with a slowly dripping faucet, drizzle hot water over the top of the bar as you hold it. The idea is to begin slowly so the wool does not slip off the bar entirely. Dunking the entire bar in water at this point may destroy your earliest efforts.
- Continue to drizzle hot water over the bar until it is completely wet. Then, with your hands, squeeze the felt around the bar.
- Eventually, the wool around the bar will become wrinkly. Continue adding enough water to have a wet bar, and continue working the bar in your hands until you get a good lather.
- As the wool begins to felt, it will loose the wrinkles. At this point, begin rubbing your hands back-and-forth over the bar. At first be gentle, then add more friction as you continue through the next steps.
- Work the bar around and around in your hands, first one way, then the other, keeping the lather going. If you prefer a felting board or washboard, this is the time to rub the bar back and forth or in circular motions across the board.
- Flip and turn the bar in your hands or on the board and make sure that the narrow sides are being worked as well as the bigger face surfaces. When the fiber reaches the soft felt stage it will take the shape of the bar. At the fulling stage the wool is tight around the soap bar.
- Optional: When the fibers begin to knit and hold together, and you want to shorten felting time, you may try "shocking" the fiber by placing it under very hot water, then under very cold water. Also, you can smack the soap with your hand (be ready for a big splash of soapy water) in order to "shock" the fibers into shrinking. However, "shocking" the fibers is not a necessary step in the felting process... the fibers will felt regardless, over time.
- When you think the wool has felted down to make a tight casing around the soap, dunk the bar into your bowl of water to check. If the felting is still loose around the soap, continue working and lathering it in your hands or on the board.
- When the felting is tight and not excessively hairy or fluffy, place the bar under cold, running faucet water to tighten the felting and remove suds.
- Gently squeeze out excess water. Some suds will appear when you squeeze; they are not important.
- Pat the bar dry on a towel, and leave to dry either on a towel or optional rack.
Surely, family, friends, teachers, associates and customers will all enjoy your unique, handcrafted, "sweatered" bars of soap. Unless they've tried it themselves, they'll never appreciate just how simple, inexpensive and fun your "green" gifts are to craft at home.
Claire Eddins - Writer/editor, award-winning photographer Claire Eddins collects gems, horses, and obsesses over home, art, and design.
