What happens if you wash felt

Most of us know what happened to our adult sized wool sweater when we tried to wash it -it shrunk down to a child's size! Wool should be treated with much care or it will shrink. We suggest dry cleaning or spot cleaning to keep our wool blend felt in its original condition. It's easy and already looks great! But there are times that a toy or a t-shirt just needs be washer friendly.

Prewash in a sink of hot running water -immersing the felt completely. We use soap and gently squeeze the felt into a ball, rinsing and repeating until the water runs clear. This process does two things to the felt. First the hot water gets any excess dye out. Not all colors bleed -but this bright Carmine did!

Second, the combination of hot water, soap and gentle squeezing is further felting the fabric -binding the fibers even closer together and causing the felt to shrink.

Lay flat to dry -or use a blow dryer to speed things up. Leave a Comment. Rate I have not made this yet so I cannot rate it. Thank you! Your comment has been added. We are sorry. There was an error tyring to post your rating and review. Your comment will appear after our editors have had a chance to review it.

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You can use letters, numbers and white space. First Name:. Last Name:. Gently squeeze it a few times to wash it. Some people use mild detergents, while others think using detergent will cause fuzzing on the surface. If you use detergent, make sure it is very gentle. Wash the felt item on the delicate cycle. Though most felt items should not be washed, if you have an item you want to machine wash, you should wash it on the delicate cycle.

Use a gentle detergent, like Woolite. Only do this occasionally. Remove excess water. You can remove excess water from the felt by pressing it between two towels. Flatten the felt as much as possible to its original shape.

Air dry the item. Instead, you should air dry them. This may be on a clothing line or on a hanger in your home. Just make sure you place it in a cool area and not in the direct sun.

Method 3. Determine if your felt is wool felt or synthetic felt. Wool felt reacts more negatively to washing than synthetic felt. Wool felt may shrink, bleed, or start to fuzz. Synthetic felt typically can be washed without too many problems. If you have wool felt, take more care washing it. If you have synthetic felt, it will probably be more durable. Use a home dry cleaning kit. These kits come with directions that will walk you through the cleaning process so that you can safely clean your item.

Take the item to the cleaners. If you have the time and money, you can take your felt article of clothing to the cleaners.

Most dry cleaners won't touch basically anything that isn't clothing, however. What method do I use to clean the white felt on a base drum beater?

It's soiled with grease spots and is a dirty, off-white color. It is the beater operated with the foot on a drum kit. It's about 1" squared. Given that actual felt used to be wool, rather than it's modern counter part which is a high blend of polyester, or missing the wool completely, it was not technically washable as it would lose both it's shape and size.

I recommend treating it like a suede product and using a dry cleaning spray and stiff brush or simply coating it heavily with white chalk, working that into any oily stains and brushing it back out thoroughly with a vegetable brush, re-treating any area as needed.

A stiffer metal bristle brush will be needed on some stains to break up the compacted felting. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 1. It will depend on the type of stain. Unfortunately, most felt mats are meant to be disposed of if soiled despite all the work, but if it is not a heavy staining agent like kool-aid or coffee, you can try brushing it out when completely dried with a stiff-bristled brush. I do not recommend using water or soap as these will break down the felt, but a mild spray cleaner could be used on some colors and brushed up when dry.