Fab Glue

Fab stands for fabric and fabulous!

I found this little gem at the fabric store while I was shopping for fabric for Christmas gifts.

The uses include - basting seams and matching plaids, positioning ribbons, trims, and appliques, basting hems and zippers, and tack down seam allowances to keep them from moving or flipping over when sewing.

AWESOME!!!

No more ironing and pinning hems :)

I started making bags that are a combination of felt and fabric and the beautiful thing about felt is that you don't have to hem the edges! It's not that ironing and pinning is difficult, it just doesn't excite me!

You use it just like a regular glue stick - rub on area...

and fold hem over. I was amazed at how well it worked!

You can sew right through it and it washes out.

Here is the finished project.

If you want your very own stick of this fabulous glue, then leave a comment and I will put you in a drawing for one. Drawing to close noon on January 8th!

Wet Felting - A Tutorial

Wet felting is a lot of fun and all you need is: 1.) a piece of bubblewrap 2.) wool 3.) a piece of netting, rug underlayment, shelf liner, screen, or any type of fabric with holes in it.

First, lay your bubblewrap down on your working surface. I am using a pool cover in this picture. I called a local pool store and found a remnant piece for free!!! I was able to cut it to the size of my table.

Lay your wool out in approximately 25% bigger than you want your finished piece to be. This is a very rough estimate and if you are a perfectionist then you can felt a small piece to see what your actual shrinkage is. I like to felt on the fly :)

Layer your wool by placing a very thin layer in one direction and the next layer in the opposite direction and so on until you have 3-4 layers depending on how thick you want your finished product.

Here comes the fun part and I have my very capable assistant to demonstrate the rest of the process. Cover your wool with your netting, we are using shelf liner here. Fill a bowl with hot water and a little bit of liquid soap. Take a sponge and drip the water over the wool until it is completely wet.

Next, use a bar of soap (I find that glycerin based soap works best) and aggressively rub it across back and forth over the wool.

Once the surface is slippery you can set the soap aside and rub with your hands. Every once in awhile, pull the netting up to make sure the wool isn't felting to it :)

The wool should start sticking to itself and beginning to felt. You can pull the netting off and rub the wool directly.

He is so serious :)

Roll the wool up in your netting and roll back and forth. I find rolling REALLY boring, so I do this for a very short period of time. I roll a couple times from one direction and a couple times from the other.

Pull your piece of felt out of the netting and scrunch it up and abuse it :) Throw it on the table, rub it against the bubble wrap.

Now we need to get rid of the soap and finish the process. Put it in hot water first and continue scrunching it up under the water.

Next to the cold water. Repeat this 2 times - hot, cold, hot, cold. You will feel the surface texture change when you go from the hot to cold - I love this part.

Sometimes I will throw the finished product into the dryer and sometimes I will lay it out in the sun. Here is my son's finished piece...

and here is mine. They are both going to be used for vests. He is going to make one for his teddy bear. We used Navajo Churro wool and it felts beautifully. Not to be worn against the skin but great for rugs and masculine vests.

Custom Bags

I have been working on a few custom bags.

This was a special request from Michelle at Boulderneigh. She raises Shetland sheep and I traded her for some roving from her sheep. The fiber is lovely and I can't wait to spin it.

This bag wasn't a custom one, but it inspired the gal who ordered the next one.

The angoras were a little tricky, especially the red one but the lady was great in regards to giving me feedback and I hope she is really happy with it!

Last but not least is Ziggy with the bag that I made for his buddy Tisha. Isn't he a cutey? He loves to race!

Currently the bags come in the light blue and dark blue, but I am working on dyeing them. I experimented with dyeing the lighter blue and am really excited with the results.

The results confuse me a little :) The original color is on the left and I got the red by dyeing with bright red and the green was achieved by dyeing with a mustard yellow. I thought the dyes would blend with the light blue dye - red/blue make purple and yellow/blue make green. The green was what I expected but not the red. I like the red better than purple so that was a nice surprise!

And look at my Goodwill find...

We have a large outdoor burner, but I needed a big pot to dye in.

The added bonus is that it has a strainer in it! Stay tuned for the results.

I have added a few new totes to my etsy store and would be happy to make a custom tote or purse for you!

A giveaway to celebrate my new blog!

You can still keep up with things on the farm at - Stories from the Farm - but this blog is going to be all about the fiber studio. To celebrate my new blog I am having a giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment or become a follower. I will put all the names in a hat and have my son choose the winner. The deadline is a week from now - July 8th.

Now for the fun part - you will have your choice of bag 1...

or bag 2...

I will contact the winner on July 9th - Good Luck!