Butternut Woolens

I made these mane-tossing pillows in an afternoon and they turned out so well I thought I'd share them. Two layers of felted angora over a layer of wool are felted onto a piece of muslin or wool fabric. The fringe is made of locks of sheep's wool sewn between a strip of quilt hem (wide bias tape) and stitched between the front and back of the pillow. The back can be any fabric you choose, I used scraps of wool. These pillows are 12 inches square and except for the drying time, can be made in about 2-3 hours. You can see the real pillows at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this weekend, September 22-23 in Canby, Oregon, where I'll have kits available for $38.00. Below is a photo-rich, step-by-step tutorial.

Kit includes:
Enough wool roving, angora roving and wool locks to make a 12" by 12" pillow.

You will need:
2 pieces of scrap fabric 13" by 13 " square. I used cotton muslin and medium-weight wool. Lightweight wool, silk, cotton prints, even leather would also work. One piece will be the front, one the back. Each has a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

3 oz of stuffing. I used ingeo plant fiber made specifically for stuffing pillows. A 12 oz bag cost $4.99 and I bought it at Joann's fabrics, along with the quilt binding and thread. You could also use polyester fiberfill, wool roving, yarn thrums, etc.

4 feet of quilt binding. This is wide bias tape, just a piece of cotton fabric that holds the locks in place while you sew them. A 3 yard package cost $3.49. You could also use a piece of scrap fabric about 2 inches wide.

Sewing needle and thread to match the main pillow color. You can sew these by hand, but a sewing machine is handy.

Materials for felting:
Foam wrap large enough to cover both sides of the muslin, e.g. 14" by 28". This is used to protect the table from water and to cover the fiber while it steams.

Shelf liner about the same size. This is the non-skid stuff that holds rugs in place on hardwood floors.

Dish soap, kettle of hot water, 2 bathtowels, 4 rubber bands.

Step 1-Making the spots and blotches
To make the horsey spots on the indigo and pinto ponies, I first made pre-felt, a bit of felt that can be cut into shapes and felted onto the main pillow fabric. Take the angora roving, open it up and pull out wisps of fiber. Lay with wisps end to end horizontally in a square about 4 to 6 inches. Add a second layer of angora in wisps at 90 degrees to the first layer. Here the two layers at 90 degrees are shown with gray gotland fiber.

Pour dish soap on the double layers of fiber
,
pour very hot water over the fiber and wrap with the foam or other plastic to steam the bundle for 30 minutes.

I have found it important to let the angora steam for at least 30 minutes to open up the fiber and prepare it for felting, otherwise it just slides around and doesn't felt well.

After steaming, unwrap the foam and rub the fiber with your hands in a circular and back and forth motion to begin the felting process.
Rub for 10 minutes. The fiber is now loosely felted. Set it aside, you will cut the spots out later.

Step Two-Laying Out the Pillow Fibers
If you haven't already, spread out the foam wrap on the table, lay the shelf liner or non-skid rug rubber sheet on the foam wrap, then place the fabric you will use for the pillow front. During felting, the fibers work themselves into this muslin, making a durable fabric with a soft fur-like surface.

Using the wool roving, lay out wisps of fibers over the square muslin, white roving for the light areas of the design and colored roving for the dark areas. The wisps of wool should extend beyond the edge of the muslin by 1/2 inch to allow for shrinkage. Next, place a wispy layer of angora fiber at 90 degrees to the first layer, then add a third layer of angora 90 degrees to the layer #2. Your fiber will look something like this:

Cut spots from the prefelt and arrange them as you wish.

Pour on dish soap, then very hot water

Cover and steam for 30 minutes.

Step 3-Felting
By first rubbing the steamed fiber for 10 minutes, then rolling back and forth first in a horizontal direction and then in a vertical direction, the fibers lock together and make a durable felt.

Unwrap the bundle after steaming and begin rubbing through the non-skid material. Next, roll the felt in a cylinder with the non-skid material. Wrapping this bundle in a bath towel and placing rubber bands around it makes for easy rolling. Roll for at least 15 minutes, unwrapping the bundle and checking progress halfway through.

After 15 minutes of felting, unwrap the bundle and re-wrap at 90 degrees so the fibers are rolled top to bottom and side to side. Roll again for 15 minutes, checking halfway through and smoothing out wrinkles.

In this photo, notice how the angora/wool fibers have adhered into the muslin. If your muslin or fabric backing isn't firmly adhered yet, you need to roll longer. I found 10 minutes didn't really cut it, but by 15 minutes all of the pieces had adhered to the muslin or wool.

Step 4-Shocking
Peal the felt off the rubber nonskid material, wad it up in your hands and throw it down forcefully onto the table 5 or 6 times. This treatment shocks the felt and makes it stronger and more cohesive. Finally, rinse the felt under alternating hot and cold water to thermally shock the fibers and make them more durable.

Lay the felt out to dry, smoothing any wrinkles.

Step 5-Sewing up

There are many ways of sewing up. You can make exposed seams, or fold the seams under. The indigo pony pillow uses exposed seams with the locks sewn directly onto the fabric without the use of quilt binding. For the brown and white pinto pony pillow, the locks are first sewn onto the quilt binding, the seam allowances are folded over and pinned and the tape of locks stitched onto the front. The front and back are pinned right sides together on both pillows, leaving a few inches open to insert the stuffing. Stuff the pillow, stitch closed the opening and you're ready to ride!