Whiptips craft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. Whiptips archive here. Questions to whiptips@gmail.com.
Jennifer writes in asking:
How do you sew felted wools (say from an old sweater) on a sewing machine? Is a special needle needed? Do I need to do something with the tension? All I ever end up with are broken needles.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I have not done it personally, but I understand you need to use an especially heavy duty needle (this is the advice of the nice ladies at Purl Patchwork, http://www.purlsoho.com), because otherwise your needle will effectively needle felt the felt.
You need to use a denim machine needle, and sort of guide the needle down through the fabric when starting.
Actually, I’ve just been using a regular needle, and I’ve been sewing on some heavy felts. I must have a workhorse of a machine (Singer). I did have to have everything cleaned (regular maintenance) because of all the lint. I do adjust the stitch length to be a bit longer than if sewing on lighter material.
I’ve sewn felted wool from sweaters and just have the needle from my standard sewing machine. I do fiddle a lot w/tensions, however. just my opinion, however.
Hi,
I’ve been sewing felted sweaters on my machine with no trouble. I have just my regular needle in, but I set my machine to a zig-zag stitch or I set it to a wider-than-usual straight stitch. My tension isn’t very…tense, so that might have something to do with it.
On the machine I would either sew the letters from an uncut piece of felt onto the fabric and then cut around the sewn edges, I would baste the letters to the surface before sewing them on with the machine or I would stick interfacing on the letter and fuse it onto the surface and then cut so the letters don´t bunch up and end up crooked.
I’d be sewing slowly, and with a longer stitch, and using a walking foot so the fabric travels evenly as you sew.
You should just be able to use a regular needle
There is no way that a regular needle should needle felt – needle felting needles have little teeth along their edges to catch and pull the fibres – if your sewing machine needle has bits on it that are catching fibres then it needs changing pronto! – needles for sewing should be smooth
If the felt you are using is really dense and tough then a leather needle might help – these have an almost knife-like edge to help punch a hole through the textile you are sewing.
I would definitely use a longer stitch length than usual and go really slowly
i’ve always used a standard needle – a 14 if i have one – and usually ease up on the top tension. a walking foot would be ideal to cope with the thickness, but i can’t think of a reason why you’d be getting broken needles – the fabric is usually dense, but not particularly tough.
lengthen your stitches
I sew with felted sweaters a lot and I second everything VioletRose said. Regular needle, long stitches. I use straight stitches if the sweater is truly felted. If is looks like it might unravel at all, then I use zigzag. I have a tough machine (Bernina 930) so maybe I’m spoiled. Besides that- be careful not to pull on the fabric while you are sewing- that could break needles. And, actually, sometimes I do break needles… but not enough to worry about and they are not that expensive.
Good grief, clearly I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to sewing felt – sorry for any confusion! I must have misunderstood what my friends at Purl were suggesting. Good luck!
I use a regular needle and have sewn a looooot of felt on my ordinary machine. You may want to check the degree to which you are ‘felting’ the jumper. It is much harder to get through a really dense felt than a moderate one. I no longer bother to felt jumpers which started out life as very heavy jumpers, or to felt a jumper to the point of extreme density. I find with the very dense and thick felts the machine copes fine until you get to a junction with a few layers, then I have broken needles. Also, the finished item (mine are mostly toys) don’t turn as well when the felt is very dense, ie the seams don’t ‘open’ well. I now seek out fine jumpers for felting, or only moderately felt. If there is a lot of ‘stretch’ still in the felt I also use a stretch stitch for sewing rather than straight. I’ve never had a problem with fraying, even on lightly felted items.