Hand felted slippers

Hand felted slippers using various felting techniques

I recently had a go at felting, using both a wet techique and a needle. Here is a description of my first project : making a pair of slippers, using a bit of both techniques.

We made these slippers while on holiday with my family in Devon. My mum had made a pair of slippers with a friend, so she showed us how it worked. However with no experienced felters on hand, we were a bit unsure of the techniques, and I don’t think we used enough wool, or enough layers, so the final slippers are a bit on the thin side, but are pretty lovely nevertheless. The wet felting technique is a little messy, but very satisfying when you see the fibers all fuse together under your hands.

1. Make the template
Do this by drawing around your foot and adding about 30-40% to allow for shrinking. Try and use a material that will be at least a little water resistant. We used an old pizza base! The line on the template is where you cut the felt to remove the template, and later put in your feet.

2. Cover one side of the template in wool
Add the wool, with the fibres all in one direction, using soapy water to make it stick together.

3. Cover the other side
Fold over the edges of the wool and cover the other side of the template in the same way.

4. Add another layer
Do another layer, but this time lay the fibres in the other direction. Keep adding soapy water to stick all the fibres together. Do this for both sides. We only did three layers of wool in total, but our slippers turned out quite thin. I think you need a few more than this!

5. Add your pattern to the final layer
For the final layer, make sure you use the colours in the pattern you want for the final slippers. We used a dark brown colour for the bottom of the slipper and multicoloured stripes for the top.

6. Wet and rub the wool until the fibers begin to fuse together
Once the wool has begun to felt together, cut a slit in each slipper and ease out the pattern.

7. Continue to work the felt
Keep rubbing, beating and otherwise working the slippers until they begin to shrink to form a more solid slipper shape. Pay particular attention to the heel, working it up together to form the back part of the slipper. To begin with we found the slipper actually got a bit bigger with all the water. I don’t know if this is what is supposed to happen – maybe we just added a little too much water. Get rid of any excess (we used a tea towel) and just keep working it, and it will eventually start to shrink.

8. Finish off this process wit the slippers on your feet
This will ensure you get the right shape, and you can be certain of the finished size.

9. Rinse out the slippers
Rinse out to get rid of the soapy water and leave to dry.

10. Needle felt any details.
Simply mould the wool to roughly the shape you want in your hands, continually poking it with a felting needle to felt the fibres together. The more you do this, the more solid the finished design will be, and the more the wool will shrink. You could make flower shapes, pompoms, colourful patterns, or anything else you can imagine. I simply added a red rim around the top of the slippers to neaten up the edge.

And here are the finished slippers! I love the rustic, homemade feel and the way they mould to your feet – so cosy!