Felt Smackdown, 4 felts will go in only one can emerge victorious!

The number one question I am asked is, what is the difference between types of felt although I go into this in detail on the Posts Whats the diffrence 1 wool , 2 Acrylic and eco-spun & 3 wool felt blends, sometimes you just need a basic visual reference. With that I proudly present the moment you’ve waited 3 posts for…  the Felt Smack-down a grudge match in which 4 felts will be tested but who will come out on top? Insert theme from Rocky here….

These felts will be put through the 6 tests and a winner will be declared after each round.  But first the details;  Each felt square will be cut into a 5×7 squares, both the wool and wool blend are from American Felt and Craft and the acrylic and eco-spun (now called eco-fi) are from my local craft store.

Challenge #1 Appearance

OK well this one is tough since it’s largely dependant on what your looking for personally I love the bouncy loft of the 100% wool but you can declare your own winner….

Challenge #2 Transparency

This is a very basic challenge each felt will be placed on the above scrap booking paper to see the level of transparency.

Acrylic $0.25

Eco-Felt $0.30

 

Wool/Rayon Blend $0.75

Wool $5.00

Winner: Wool Blend  with 100% Wool in a close second.

Challenge #3 Stitching

Each of the felts were cut into smaller strips and machine sewn together (wool to wool and so on) with red thread, I gave them 1 good  tug and here are the results.

 

 

When I placed the sewn pieces down I noticed that the act of yanking them distorted some more than others so I thought I’d show you that too.

Winner: Tie Wool’s loft almost completely hides the stitches but blend holds a nicer looking seam and wasn’t easily pulled out of shape as much as wool.

Challenge #4 Fuzz Factor

Each of the felts was cut into a free hand circle I then pinched along the edges to see how much fuzz each felt produced:

I also wanted to see how much fuzz was produced with normal usages, I am nothing if not though, so I cut apart my stitched felt (which is why the sample pieces are a bit wonky) and placed a clear return address sticker onto each piece of felt smoothed it down and removed it VIOLA!

 

Winner: Blend    Second Place:  Wool     Voted most likely a waste of money: Acrylic, seriously it almost has a hole in it at this point!

 Challenge #5 Shrinkage

For this test I threw my 5×7 inch sheets from challenges 1 & 2 into the washer with a few pairs of jeans for agitation and washed them on warm, which here in Arizona means scalding hot, basically the worst conditions for felt.

 

Winner: Eco-felt Second Place: Acrylic

Challenge #6 The moment you’ve all be waiting for…FIRE!

For this challenge I took a small swatch of each felt equal in size and lit them on fire waited 10 seconds and took a picture of what was left,  in some cases the flame just kind of died out on it’s own but only the acrylic had to be put out before 10 seconds.  All tests were conducted outdoors in a well ventilated area, don’t try this at home.

As silly as this test seems it’s actually a serious matter. If you intend to attach your felt to clothing or make toys that a child might sleep with melting plastics can cause serious burns. Because fire can be extinguished but melted plastic actually sticks to and continues to burn into the skin, melted plastics are far more dangerous in a fire.

The Acrylic did not self extinguish and created a thick black smoke as it melted,  giving off drips of plastic. It burned surprisingly rapidly and frankly between the smoke and the quick burning I got a little nervous and blew it out, so this is it after about 5 seconds. It left behind hard plastic globules (I have always wanted to use that word).

The Eco-felt was a little bit of a slower starter which was surprising considering it’s composition is identical to acrylic I can only assume it was treated with some kind of chemical however once it was ignited it melted very rapidly and created the same signature black smoke. Burnt areas once cool enough to touch (about a full minute after burning) were hard solid plastic masses.

The blend felt did not create any real smoke to speak of and self extinguished almost immediately in fact the only time it seemed to want to burn is when direct flame as applied. The burnt areas created a soft grey ash which when touched fell into dust.

As odd as it sounds I couldn’t actually get the wool to burn at all. I held the lighter to the wool the entire time and this was all I was able to accomplish, there was no smoke although there was a faint smell of burning hair although nothing like the smell of human hair and what I did manage to burn created a soft ash which fell to dust on contact.

  Winner: Wool  Second: Blend

Well there it is, I welcome your questions, comments, or suggestions.

 

What’s the difference between wool, acrylic, wool blend, and eco felt? Part 1 Wool.

What’s the Difference?

One question we get asked all the time is what’s the difference between felts? Here is everything you ever wanted to know about felt, and probably a bunch of stuff you didn’t. In this post we’ll look at wool, please see my other post on acrylic/eco felt and blended felt, or if you have a short attention span skip ahead to the felt smack-down, and yes there will be fire!

Wool felt

Generally when referring to wool felt  either 100% wool felt or a wool felt blend can be inferred but for the sake of my fingers and your sanity wool felt here will refer only to felt which is made from 100% wool.

How wool felt is made

Wool felt is made from agitating wool to create a non woven fabric. The wool shaft has scales which interlock and form a fabric through felting, because felt is nonwoven it will not unravel and the edges do not need to be finished making it, in my humble opnion the greatest textile ever!

Wear and care

100% wool has many advantages most importantly it holds up to wear and reasonable stress along it’s seams without giving way it will not pill, has a slight elasticity and takes the proper dyes and tints easily. The thin waxy coat on most 100% natural wool is both stain and water resistant, liquids will pool for some time allowing them to simply be wiped away think, wool jackets. Because wool is made from fibers dirt and other stains can also be cleaned easily by simply brushing the spotting loose from the fibers. Wool felt can be manipulated in many ways making it useful for many different applications.

 Safety and Environmental Impact

Wool is naturally fire resistant wool has been used to make fire fighters uniforms practically forever although I can’t imagine how hot those poor guys must be however since 99% of the time when wool is exposed to flame it will smolder and extinguishes itself I’m sure is worth the discomfort.

Wool fibers also have a high concentration of fatty acids, this gives wool anti-bacterial properties this keeps wool fabric from mildewing or retaining odors. Some people worry about allergies but wool is actually hypoallergenic. Since wool is composed of the same proteins as human hair and fingernails it is rare that someone has an allergy to wool. But some people are allergic to sunlight so never say never. More often than not people will cite the fact that their skin is irritated by wool as evidence of an allergy the fact is some wool like some relatives are just irritating to everyone. Since dust mites are the most the common cause of allergies and triggers for asthma attacks wool is actually a good choice for those bothered by general allergies. Dust mites live in warm humid environments. Because wool is both slow to absorb moisture and is made from interlocked fibers that allow air flow dust mites avoid wool. Another great advantage to wool is that it is both ecologically and animal friendly. It is a natural and sustainable resource.   And if you get your 100% wool from AFC you can rest assured that we only use wool from free range happy sheep!

Usages

Wool felt can be sewn, needle felted, glued and molded. If you’re interested in wet felting, and let’s face it who isn’t…you will need to use wool roving.

Drawbacks

For all of its wonderful advantages wool felt has some drawbacks; Wool felts tend to be thick and lofty which can make sewing and shaping it more difficult. It can be itchy to the touch and may not hold well on seams, can have an odd smell when wet, it will stretch itself out shape when pressure is applied and shrinks 3″-5″ per yard when washed improperly. Wool felt can be hard to find in a large array of colors since it’s cost can be prohibitive to a lot of people however it can be dyed at home, which will give you the fun extra of trying to explain your purple hands to your friends and neighbors.

Up Next Acrylic/Eco Felt or skip to part 3 Wool/Rayon Blend