Originally Posted by
Tartan
You can go to the second hand store and look for wool clothes. The wool will need to be " felted" to make it suitable for appliqué. To felt wool, it is washed in very hot water and dried.
Originally Posted by
iwillquilt
Thank you Tartan. I haven't had much luck with the second hand stores either. And I didn't know it needed to be felted. Maybe I am searching for the wrong thing. Should I be searching for felted fabric?
this is is what I did when our Goodwills had 49 cent Tan Tag Day. I got many, many, many 100% wool sweaters and jackets for less than .50 each! I took each item and put it into a pillowcase and then rubber banded the top closed. I then put into my washer with the water temp set at HOT and just a dash of laundry soap. Set the water level at medium. I did 2 items at a time (like colors) and put in 2 pair of jeans to help with the felting. I generally ran the items through the washer twice to insure I got maximum shrinking and felting. Then I put the items still inside the pillowcases and the 2 pair of old jeans into the dryer with the heat setting of HIGH. After the items are dry, I opened the pillowcases outside as there was some lint and fuzz balls inside the pillowcases. Gave them a good shake off and voila!!! Nice pretty pieces of felted wool. I did not cut the sweaters apart before I felted them but on the jackets I did remove any inter facings or linings; I thought these might inhibit the felting process. Not sure if that is true or not but that's how I did it!
check out this site if you are interested in felting your own.
http://mylifeonthedivide.blogspot.co...u-want-to.html