Phylstudio - Felting, sewing and craft

Batt: A length of pre-felt prepared commercially using a carding machine.

Blending: Mixing fibres of different colours or different types together.

Carders: Equipment for separating wool fibres or blending different types of colours of wool for spinning or making felt. Carders have fine wires set in leather or synthetic rubber cloth attached to a wooden base.

Carding: Using carders to tease and open wool out to separate the individual fibres.

Combed tops/Wool Tops: Commercially prepared fibres, combed into long loose ropes. Fibres in the rope are parallel, well separated and ideal for making lightweight felt.

Felt: A fabric in which wool fibres are interlocked and entangled. With the application of moisture and friction, they are transformed into a compact mass and become felt.

Felting Needle: A long needle with barbs on the end. Used for hand, machine and industrial felting. The barbs on the needle hook on the fibres and interlock them with each other.

Fleece: Unprocessed wool shorn from a sheep.

Fulling: The process after the felt has matted and shrunk. It is rubbed on a rough surface, thrown gently and even slammed on the work surface to force the fibres to intertwine, shrink and become firmer.

Inlay: Technique in felt design in which pre-felted pieces are placed on a background batt of wool fibres and the whole piece is then felted together.

Cotton Muslin: Soft loosely woven cotton fabric.

Merino: A breed of sheep producing fine wool that is best for making clothing from when it is felted. They are bred mainly in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

Micron: The measurement of fibre thickness. The lower the number the finer the fibre

Needle felted Batts: Fine batts of carded fibres pass under a bed of barbed felting needles. As the needles pass through the fibres the lower layers are pulled up through the top layers. The continuous process produced a sheet of wool fibres that may then be wet felted.

Nuno Felt: The name given to a fabric made with wool laminated to silk. The wool is laid on to the fabric and then rolled in the usual way. The fibres of the wool penetrate the silk and when the wool shrinks it gathers the silk forming beautiful decorative patterns.

Pre-felt: The fibres are laid for felting but are only felted until they are matted but not yet shrunk. It is then rinsed, allowed to dry and used in a design.

Resist: A plastic template used in making hollow felted formes to prevent layers of fibres felting together, eg, hats, bags, boots, pockets, etc

Rovings: A long thin rope of wool fibre which can be used for spinning or to make felt

Scales: The hooks which can be see on the wool fibre under a microscope. Felt is made from the wool when these hooks interlock and tighten the fabric.

Sliver: A fine length of fibre pulled out to lay down on bubble wrap and start preparing to make felt.

Staple: The length the wool grows on the sheep. It can be long or short staple

Throwing: A process in making felt. The bundle of felt is repeatedly dropped gently or can be slammed. This process is done at the end of the felting process. The fibres hook together even more and the felt becomes firmer