How To Make Felt Soap
One of my favorite things to do with raw fiber is to felt soap. Not only is it a fun activity for both kids and adults but you get a usable product that everyone can enjoy. Felted soap also makes great stocking stuffers or toppers for gifts.
I’ve taken photos of the felting process with instructions along the way. Should you have any questions or would like to purchase raw fiber to felt your own soap send me an email or visit our Farm Store.
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- Supplies: Fiber, Soap, Ziploc baggie, Brush, Hot Water, Shoe tray
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- Bottom row of fiber is what you see on your finished soap.
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- Make sure your 2nd row of fiber lays in the opposite direction than your first.
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- Your last row of fiber can be any color since it is not usually seen. Using a rounded soap vs. a rectangle is best for beginners so the corners of the soap don’t poke through the fiber.
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- Roll your soap up in the fiber
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- Pour HOT water on your soap.
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- Give baby pats on your soap to help the fibers start to felt. DO NOT RUB! Don’t be afraid to pick up your bundle of soap and pat it in your hand for better control.
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- Once your patted soap holds shape put it in a ziploc bag.
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- Now you can start to rub your soap. Go nuts! Great for kids to do too.
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- After 15 min it should look like this. Run your soap bar under HOT then COLD water to help shrink the fibers further. Squeeze extra water out and lay out to dry.
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- Tada! You have pretty soaps for you or to give as gifts!
Some tips for your finished soap:
Should your soap get too dry and not suds up any more run it under warm water and place the wet soap in a Ziploc bag and run in your hands until the suds start flowing again.
If you’ve finished your bar and the soap is all gone the felted part is still usable! With the soap missing the felt now has a pocket in the center where the bar of soap used to be. You can cut one of the ends off and use the felted pouch to house jewelry, cell phones, change or whatever else you can think of!
Happy felting!
As always check out other fiber projects at Alpaca Farm Girl’s Fiber Arts Fridays!
OMGosh that is so cute. Your Bacon looks like my Okra… aka Miss Kitty. I love the name Bacon Wrap.
What a totally cool idea! I must make one as soon as the Christmas rush is over. Thanks for sharing this cool idea!
That is so adorable, and I love the name.
Hi, Im going to try this with all of my 16 alpacas and see if it stops… my 8year old white male from licking the wire fencing and my other darker ones from getting those patches. I will let you know my results!
thanks
it is hard to do
How many horses get under there at one time? I have 5 horses and need shelter from wind and rain.
It’s footprint is 9ft wide by 12ft long. Usually 2 friendly horses are comfortable in there. You can extend the length to as long as you want but I wouldn’t make it any wider than 10 ft or it might not stand up to strong winds. If I had to do it over again I’d make mine 10′ wide instead of 9′
To house 5 horses I’d recomend making at least 2 of these shelters. You could probably “Cheat” by making them side by side and sharing 1 wall.
Better yet: learn Quickbooks and it will make your tax preparations so much easier.
We absolutely love the rug! Also love that it is made from recycled fibers -a big plus as we are eco-friendly! And yes, Twila took a liking to it instantly.
I'm interested in trying to felt a soap within a plastic bag! Much less mess….
I LOVE that you mad your our leads and that you used alpaca for the fiber and I don't blame you for not wanting to sell or give them away. They look beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
fabulous that you make rope. I made simple long lengths of 3 strand only using husbands electric drill with a bit modified to hold a hook, and a friend at other end of the room holding yarns x 3. Have small girls hair braider that I use to make scarf fringes, makes two twists that then turn other way to one twist. Now madly wondering how I can beef that up to make rope.
I LOVE THEM! You have a unique way to use your fiber that I'm sure most of the alpaca industry would never have thought of. They are beautiful.
These are really neat!
I wish I could use this method but I have a frontloading washing machine.
But I do basically the same thing with large tubs. Also, love your method of drying. I lay mine on top of my dryer onto a thick towel — it gets just warm enough to help the drying process!
I use my twine for wrapping gifts of all varities…even a bottle of wine will have a twine bow. I have used twine as a makeshift belt and to tie objects together in the barn. I use an old feed bag to store my twine so it's ready for use. My kids use it to play with the barn cats. The other day in the freezing snow, Brother Bear was running around outside the barn with twine in hand and there were two cats going crazy.
Love your post!
Thank you for the wonderful how to! This looks really fun!
What an awesome post! I've learned more in the last few minutes about rag rugs than I have in the books I have on the subject. Thanks so much for the effort and sharing. – MaLinda
Enjoyed your lesson! I've bookmarked your page as I've always wanted to do this. I even have the copper wire in the basement…
Thank you for such an in depth how to. Now I want to go tear up some sheets and make my own rug. I love your idea of making it a kid's project too. I can totally see my kids "helping" me out.
Thanks for sharing and for participating in Fiber Arts Friday. I look foward to more of your posts.
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