Replies

1. 
   Audrey_Young | Jun 05, 2000 02:40pm | #1

   *
   I wear a lot of wool gabardine pants and have bought a lot of this fabric. I have heard and successfully tried home shrinking methods such as holding the iron over the fabric while applying copious amounts of steam, or rolling the wool fabric in damp towels to get it slightly moist, unrolling it to let it dry. These seemed to work but take a lot of effort.

   After reading an article on washing wools, which quoted a lady from New Zealand saying they never dry clean their woolens but wash them in the washer instead, I bravely threw wool gabardine and other hard finish wool fabrics in the washing machine with slightly warm water on the gentle cycle. I believe I put it in the dryer on air dry or one of the low heat settings. It was fine. Had to iron it though to get slight wrinkles out. This also allows you to machine wash the finished garment the same way. I'll be honest though. I only do this to less expensive wools. The stuff I pay $25/yd for, I use the damp fabric method mentioned above.

1. 
   Heather_M._Claus | Jun 30, 2000 02:49pm | #2

   *Any wools can be washed. After all, they did not have dry cleaning way back when. A few pointers when washing wools:1. Cooler water is better. (heat helps felting)2. Gentle agitation is better (wool is weak when wet).3. Gentle detergent is better, try baby shampoo. (hars detergents encourage felting).4. Delicate tumble without heat is best. (heat of the tumble, plus agitation, plus the water will give you more felting possibilities - even hard-finished wools may get duller or fuzzier)I use these for all the wools and hair fabrics I use, even my cashmeres.-- Heather M. Claus

1. 
   gazebo | Jul 12, 2007 02:59pm | #3

   Can you tell me what I can do with an old sport coat that is wool and how to wash it to get it ready for felting?  I heard someone said that by undoing the wool from the lining and washing it (in what temp?) drying it and then ironing it I can use this instead of wool felt.

   Appreciate any help.  Thanks, Karen

1. 
   starzoe | Sep 29, 2007 09:46pm | #4

   The coat has to be one hundred percent wool to felt. Take the coat apart and zigzag around the edges of each piece. Wet down the fabric and rub soap onto each piece. To be safe from clogging your washing machine, I would advise putting the pieces into a pillow case into hot water. Check several times through the cycle so that if the fabric is felting enough you can stop the cycle.If it hasn't felted enough by the time one hot cycle is finished, put it through again, in the same hot water; that means stopping the machine before it goes into its rinse cycle. Then put it through a cold rinse and spin dry. You have the choice of whether to use a drier or to dry the fabric pieces flat.