How To Make Felt Slippers
September 1, 2008
I recently taught Sue how to make a pair of felt slippers from merino wool and hand spun silk. Sue filmed the making of the slippers in order to watch the process again for her own slipper making fun. She very kindly made me a copy of the film so that I could share it with other slipper making enthusiasts!
Here is the video and a list of equipment you will need if you want to make a pair of slippers.
- Merino Wool – around 200g and other fibres for decoration
- Bubblewrap – you will need three pieces – 50cm x 50cm
- Scissors
- Paper and Pen
- Warm water and a bottle or plant spray – you can buy the spray bulbs seen in the film from www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk for around £8
- Washing up liquid, Olive Soap or soap flakes – I use Ecover washing up liquid which I find easier to use
- Sink, bowl, draining board, washboard (the washboard in the video has made the felting so much quicker. This one that Sue has is from www.carbolicsoap.com and I thoroughly recommend it)
Entry Filed under: Art, Felt, Textiles, Tutorials. Tags: demonstration, felt slippers, slippers, tutorial.
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1.
Nicky Perryman | September 2, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Oh I want some! They look so cute and cosy…and I love the purple colour….nice nice nice!
2.
Jackie | September 4, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Thank you for the tutorial. I’ve seen slippers made round wellies amd now I’ve seen your way. Thats what I like about felt, there are so many ways to do it. I’d never thought of doing two joined together before.
3.
Kaylacoo | September 8, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Lovely to meet you through blog land!
Great slippers.
4. Roo Reynolds - Links for 2008-10-02 | October 3, 2008 at 10:21 pm
[...] Ray Reynolds: How To Make Felt Slippers – “Here is the video and a list of equipment you will need if you want to make a pair of slippers” This is my wife, an artist who makes things out of felt. Here she shows how to make felt slippers. Fun. October 2, 2008 | links | [...]
5.
Jan Lowe | October 18, 2008 at 1:20 am
Do you remove the bubblewrap template? at what stage-when you cut the slippers in half? or is it left in, also are they joined up the centre front by stitching or do you overlap the edges and felt together sorry but the video sound was poor so I missed a lot of what was being said.
6.
rayreynolds | October 21, 2008 at 8:55 am
Hi Jan
Sorry about the sound quality. To clarify…
Yes you need to remove the bubblewrap after you have cut the slippers in half. Cut the slippers in half once the wool has felted and is not going to fall apart. A good way to check this is to pull gently at the fibres. If the fibres are loose then there is still some felting to do. If they are strong and don’t pull away easily then it should be safe to cut the slippers. When placing the fibres onto the bubblewrap you need to overlap by about 2 inches (around the edge of the bubblewrap) so that the felt is seamless and doesn’t need stitching. Lay the fibres on one side of the bubblewrap, overlapping, then turn the whole thing over, fold the overlapped edges onto the other side of the bubblewrap and do the same again going over the edge, turning over and folding.
A good book that I would recommend which has the same technique in it is Simply Felt.
Hope it goes well!
7.
Sarah Kate | October 27, 2008 at 8:04 pm
How wonderful. It makes me want to have a sheep! Thank you for sharing!!
8.
Kai | November 9, 2008 at 5:24 pm
This is just what I’ve been looking for. Now everyone will have a pair for Christmas.
Many Thanks
9.
Brooke Hauser | November 11, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Hello! These are great! How long does it take to felt one pair of slippers??
10.
Alison | December 15, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Thank you for sharing the video. It makes the process easier to understand when I can see someone else doing it.
My question is how slippery are they on surfaces like polished wood floors, etc.? What do you recommend?
11.
Victoria | December 19, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Wonderful! How fun! It was so delightful to sit in my studio and watch you create on my computer. It was like having you over for a visit. :-) (I’m here in the State of Michigan, in the U.S.)
Thanks so much for taking the time to video your experience and share it with us. I’m SO looking forward to making a pair of slippers for my hubby for Christmas! Abundant blessings to you this Holiday.
12.
Gertieanne | December 21, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Hello,
Great video! I showed your video to my sister today and now she wants to make a pair of slipper. I would like to know where you got your water sprinkler?
13.
Marty | December 22, 2008 at 2:07 am
thank you for this tutorial. It is so inspiring!!! Your slippers are lovely!!!
14.
marta | December 22, 2008 at 10:29 am
My mate and I are meeting today to make slippers for xmas…We’re the Felt Warriors, and we would have no raison d’etre if it wasn’t for your teachings!!!We express our intense gratitude to the Felt Slipper Master that generously devoted time to pass on wisdom to her disciples. Hail the Felt Revolution!!! Let’s all join the ranks of the Warm Toes Brigade!
M (on behalf of myself and Brrroooniaaa)
Ps. If anyone out there is in london, I would like to recommend the most amazing shop to get all your felting needs:
The Handweaver’s Studio, 29 Haroldstone Rd, E17 7AN
An absolute gem of a shop, excellent service, fabulous stock.
and I get no comission from them, just in case! ;-}
15.
Deb Seeger | January 11, 2009 at 5:27 pm
A tad late for holiday gifts for this past Christmas but oh what a lovely gift these shall make next year. Thank you for sharing.
16.
H. Hollinger | January 11, 2009 at 8:07 pm
My daughter’s go to a Waldorf/Steiner school so of course this felting is easy for them…..but I can never get their directions to make sense…this video made it so easy. THANK YOU SO MUCH…please post more of your wonderful talents.
Cheers, Holly
17.
Nicola | March 30, 2009 at 11:33 am
Thanks for this video! I watched it through a couple of times and then made a pair of boots, which turned out perfectly. The technique is brilliant. I cut the fulling and fitting time down a bit by just sticking each boot into the microwave on full for a couple of minutes. They shrank down very quickly and could be formed to the right size within a few minutes.
It’s so much easier to follow a video than a set of still pictures!
18.
rayreynolds | April 6, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Thank you for all your compliments! I am so sorry that I am not very good at responding to comments made. I will attempt to be more organised and reply to people sooner in the future! Just to answer all of the questions that were asked ages ago… the slippers took about an hour an a half. Slippery floors – apparently you can sew leather or some kind of slipper fabric (used in slippers) to the bottom. I think they would be very slippery so you would need something on the bottom. The sprinkler I bought from http://www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/eqp_flt_equipment.php – it is called a bulb spray in the catalogue. The Handweaver’s Studio – I also thoroughly recommend! And finally – I will have to try the microwave idea. I did try it once and managed to burn the wool – any suggestions on time and power level? :-)
19.
Tatiana | August 31, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Thank you so much for sharing the video!Tatiana
20.
cashewnut | October 1, 2009 at 7:25 pm
this is a great video, i made them the same way as yours, apart from i used a shoe last inside to shape to the correct size. but when my daughter starts to wear them for a few days, bobbles started to form both at the bottom and the sides, is there anything i can add to the felt to make it more firm, might be some kind of fabric hardener?? i don’t think it’s the case of not felting it enough, i even put it in the washing machine twice after i hand felt it. i had to stop my daughter wearing them now, otherwise the more i cut off the bobbles, the thinner it gets!!!
21.
rayreynolds | October 7, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I’m afraid I’m going to be very unhelpful as I don’t know how to stop the bobbles appearing on the felt. I have a little device called a ‘bobbleoff’ which de-fuzzes my jumpers when they get bobbly. You can buy a fabric hardener which might help but I haven’t tried using before. Sorry – not a lot of help at all!
22.
Jacky | October 16, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I have just found your blog today through a friend. We have both been to a couple of classes and learned felting and nuno felting and we are *hooked*.
How lovely to find your blog and these beautiful slippers. We may be coming into Summer over here in Australia, but I definately want to try and make a pair of these slippers in readiness for next autumn and winter.
I am about to go and check out your video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us…very generous of you.
Warm wishes from Australia,
Jacky