Nunofelt Top

I got a chance to make a little nunofelt top the other day.

I want to make a dress, but thought it would be best to start off with something smaller (and sleeveless).  You can see the resist I used behind the top -- and Tippee on the right.
I used 5mm habotai silk and my BFL/tencel batting.  I had my BFL fiber blended with tencel and made into 45" x 72" batts weighing 2 lbs each. I split the layers of batting down until they can be split no farther.  The less wool the silkier the fabric will be. (Next time I'm going to try two layers of silk with the wool sandwiched in between.)
To make this, I took a sleeveless top that fit well.  I folded it in half lengthwise and drew around it in pencil on newsprint. I cut that out and then I used the shrinkage rate of my fiber to enlarge the pattern in all directions on foam underlayment.  The shrinkare rate was 50% in this case, you need to make a sample first because different fibers and fabrics will shrink down differently.

I had planned to dip-dye the top, but now I'm thinking of trying some eco dyeing like Terrie did on her lovely felted purse in this blog post.

I've decided to sell all but two of my Shetlands, so I need to get the lambs wormed and vaccinated, take photos, etc. Not to mention I need to spray the thistles in the pasture, clean out the chicken barn, and as the photo above clearly shows, I need to get that 1980s wallpaper out of my kitchen! The weather is tolerable today, but when you get the felting bug, it's hard to quit thinking about it.

Here is a mystery fleece that I raw felted last week. It's coarse and it is going to be a rug.  It's a beautiful color, I would call it mioget if the sheep was a Shetland. The gal who gave it me thought it was from a Jacob sheep, but I'm wondering if it was an Icelandic.

My youngest son, Matt, did a fabulous job on the Kanabec Art Association's 50th anniversary video.  As part of a grant project, I was privileged to interview 17 members of the association while Matt filmed.  We worked together with editing it all down to a 50 minute video, but Matt did all the technical stuff.  The video was a big hit at the retrospective art show on July 13 & 14.  He's put the finishing touches on it now by adding music supplied by my friend Denise and chapter links, etc.   I'm so proud of him, and glad to see that college tuition was actually a good investment!