Валяние обуви – очень трудоемкий и длительный process, therefore, not every craftswoman dares to create such products. In this type of needlework there are a lot of different nuances and subtleties, a lot depends on the material and tools. But subject to the technology of felting wool slippers, you can get a very beautiful, comfortable and natural thing. Such footwear will bring special joy to people with non-standard foot sizes - things from felt are created individually, therefore they are suitable for everyone.
Опытные мастера, занимающиеся изготовлением обуви professionally, buy wool in farms. The most tender is the one that is removed during the first haircut - it does not yet have a guard hair, because it does not prick. It is used to knit and create children's things. The older the sheep, the tighter the hair. Felting for beginners does not require searching for raw wool. In any needle shop you can buy cards and roll them out.
Wool shoesmakers canbe various tools. Some needlewomen use for felting "goat", fittings, specially processed rolling pins and old washing boards. In this master class we will use reinforcement for rolling wool. The ability to choose a convenient tool for yourself comes with experience, because it can be difficult to recommend any kind of universal products that will be convenient for everyone. For stroking the contours and translating the picture, it is best to buy a watercolor pencil - it is easy to wash it off with plain water. Other similar materials may leave behind ugly traces. You will need a ruler to create a template - the most convenient is to use an iron one, where the counting starts not from scratch, but from one.
All work is most often carried out on film withair capsules that helps stub wool. Sometimes it is replaced by other types of film or roll on the washboard. When working to order, you will need special shoe pads for felting slippers. If you make shoes for yourself, they are not needed. Also scales can be useful for work to precisely measure the necessary amount of material. For wet felting we prepare a container with water, in which we put a piece of laundry soap. Before starting work, we protect the work surface with a film and put on gloves.
Felting wool slippers begins with removalmeasurements. On it the template which is cut out in the form of foot is made. In order to correctly determine its size, it should be borne in mind that the coefficient of shrinkage of the wool after stalling is 30-50%. It can vary greatly depending on the type of material, its quality and even within the same batch. Therefore, before felting slippers or other large items, it is best to check how heavily the wool sits on a small amount.
Making a template and taking measurements requirescareful approach and accurate calculation. The feet of people are different, because it is so important to take the measure correctly. For example, for a foot of the 39th size, the length of the template is 38.5 cm. If you do not know how to get the desired size, measure the length of the foot, divide the number of centimeters by 2, and then multiply the resulting number by 3. Accordingly, if the size is known, to get the length of the foot, the number must be multiplied by 2 and divided by 3. In order to determine exactly how much wool for felting slippers to take, you need to take into account foot size, foot elevation and the desired thickness of the product.
Take a piece of paper and draw the desired shape.watercolor pencil. If you have pads, circle them and then resize to fit. When working to order, masters ask the size of the foot exactly in centimeters, since at present there is no single standard and different shoe factories use their own scales. It is also important to measure the lift and the width, so that later on it is comfortable to wear slippers. About 1 cm on each side is added to the width. The resulting size is increased by 30-50%, depending on the coefficient of shrinkage of wool. As a material for the template, you can use the substrate under the laminate and pieces of linoleum. Properly made felt can not pass moisture up to half an hour. Therefore, in high-quality felt boots you can stand in the water and not wet your feet. Such density is not needed for slippers, but it is important to be able to work correctly with wool in order to get a comfortable and beautiful product.
When blanks are ready, start feltingslippers. We first weigh the wool. One pair of shoes is usually about 300 grams. For the 36th size - about 200 grams, and on the 45th - 290. It is important to divide the material equally, so that both slippers are the same. For wet felting, you can use washed wool, but non-washed wool is dumped faster. During processing, the material still extends. Next, we begin to lay out the wool. From the layout of 90% depends on what the thing will turn out in the end - this is one of the most important stages of the wizard. Felting wool slippers is a long process, so you need to be patient. We lay out the material in layers in three stages.
Begin to lay out the first layer of wool.We take the templates and put them on top of the prepared material, and then pinch off the excess along the edges. If somewhere it turns out too thin, add pieces of wool. When the blanks are laid out, we take a container with water and soap. Soap is best to dissolve in advance to speed up the process. One piece of soap is enough for five pairs of slippers. Next, remove the pattern and begin to apply the soap solution to the wool and wipe it with the palm, gradually knocking over. This is necessary to make the sole more dense. Then we put the template back, take the solution again and start to wrap the edges of the wool at the edges so that there are no creases.
It is important to understand that the edges of the pattern are not the edge.future slipper. In the middle you need to put so much wool so that the layer thickness is equal to the sole under the workpiece. Tear the fibers into pieces and evenly spread them over the entire surface. If you do not do this, the slippers will turn out to be irregularly shaped. From above we place another, thicker layer of wool and begin to roll with the help of water and soap. In order for the wool not to stick to the hands and fall down equally in all places, the craftsmen use a net or cloth, which is placed on top of the product. But usually it is enough to take thin gloves or a plastic bag. It is important to ensure that the edges of the upper layer do not spread out to the sides - then it will have to be turned upside down, then the bottom of the slipper will have more wool and the shape of the product will be distorted. Therefore, you should try to align the material on the template. We turn the workpiece over and start processing from the reverse side. In the process of felting slippers, we make sure that the wool does not form folds, otherwise in the future these places will form creases and scars. The edges are carefully wrapped and smoothed.
После работы с первым слоем шерсти руки нужно be sure to wipe off. Then proceed to the layout of the new layer. We start with the so-called stabilizing in the central part of the workpiece. We tear wool on shreds to lay out it evenly, and we spread on the surface of the future slipper. We check with the palm of our hand how well the material has been distributed, and then we roll it with soapy water. Since the toe and heel are usually wiped, in these places the wool should be thick and wider. Therefore, in the second stage, at the edges, you can add a little more material, but so as not to create folds. We turn the workpiece and add a layer of wool on the back side. We use soap only during the layout. After we pull out the template, we no longer need it. So that the water does not flow on the table, take the workpiece and slightly squeeze it.
We continue our master class on felting slippers:begin to roll the third layer of wool. When finished, we roll a small piece of wool of a contrasting color so as not to confuse the right and left billet. We start to dump all the layers in one circular motion to the center. It is necessary to bring the material to such a state that the pattern inside becomes crowded. We turn over and repeat on the reverse side. Then we compress and again we lather. The more often we do this, the cleaner will be wool. This is especially important with the material of white color - if somewhere is not fully developed, all the flaws will be visible on the finished product. We continue to wash our hands and roll wool on both sides. We wipe it with palm across, moving up and down. When the wool is sufficiently lumped, we take the armature and begin with the power to roll the workpiece with it, working just like a rolling pin. We process the product from two sides. Our task is not to seat, but to seal the felt. Dense material itself sits as needed. At this stage it is not necessary to use a lot of water - we wash the felt to wash the wool.
In the next step, the felting of slippers beginsproduct modeling. To do this, take a ruler and watercolor pencil and find the center of the workpiece. Then we calculate where and what size the incision will be. It should not be too big. It is important to decide what form will slippers - with or without a backdrop. It depends on where the incision will be. Flip flops without a backdrop will be harder to bear. Some masters for felting slippers use a washing machine, but this method is not recommended for beginners, as it is difficult to figure out how much the wool will sit down.
Наметив разрез, берем ножницы и, сделав небольшое hole, insert the blade inside and begin to cut out the part without closing the scissors to the end. This method will help avoid chipping on the felt. To trim the cutout is impossible, you can only slightly adjust the excess. Now we proceed to the extraction of the template. First, we take the soap, soap our hands and, placing our fingers inside the product, we begin to process the edge of the cutout with quick movements. It will begin to grow and stretch - that is why the cut should be small. Fully wipe the entire cut and seams around the edges to avoid the appearance of scars. We add a soap solution and, while the template is still inside, we begin to model slippers, lifting the edges of the product. Having finished to give the initial form, we retrieve the blank. Slippers almost ready.
Since the surface of the felt was processed by us inmostly outside, the inner surface of the product is felted worse. Therefore, in the next stage, we start felting the slipper from the inside. We rub the surface from all sides, then squeeze and rinse under running water. After this stage, the product can be put aside and dried. In the process of felting, static electricity has accumulated in the product, so that it goes away, you can give the product a "rest" during the day.
В дальнейшем мыло использовать мы больше не будем.The subsequent processing of wool can be done on a conventional film with air capsules or on a washboard. Felting for beginners can be complicated by the lack of professional tools. But craftsmen usually use materials that can be replaced by something. For the sagging of felt, we will need several types of skalok with teeth, tolkushka and rubel. Begin processing slipper with setting heels. Special tools for this can be replaced with a regular tolkushku:
Again we repeat all the actions until we give the product the desired shape: put the heel, bend it and roll it from the inside, and then outside with a small ribbed rolling pin.
After that, we take out all the tools and workjust with your hands, rolling the slippers on the washboard. Moving forward, press the product to the board, and back - release. So you can fix minor irregularities that could not be corrected when cutting a hole. If the felt is not well buried, in the process of socks, it will begin to creep away. Therefore, at this stage of work, it is necessary to pile the product as best as possible. All subsequent actions are repeated, only the tool changes. Rollers with cloves at the final stage, we take very small. For the convenience of felting, you can use the ruble. So gradually we bring the product to the desired shape. Of course, for beginners, felting slippers can seem very difficult. This technique really requires perseverance and physical strength. There is also dry felting slippers - using special needles. Needlewomen can try different options and choose the one that is closer to them.
