Felting Soap

As I mentioned earlier, my interview with Karen really inspired me to felt. And what better project than to felt our homemade soap! However, if you want to do this, you can use any soap bar you have around the house.

For this project you will need the following supplies:

• Bar of soap
• Wool roving
• Knee high hose or panty hose
• Bowl of hot water
• Towel

So let’s felt soap!

Start by covering the soap bar completely in the wool roving. Covering round soaps is a little easier, but regular-shaped soap bars can be felted as long as you cover all of the corners.

Dip the hose with the roving covered soap in hot water and rub. Once the roving is completely saturated, squeeze the hose, continuing to form the roving around the soap.

Continue to rub and dip in the water until the wool is felted around the soap. This may take 5 to 10 minutes.

Remove the soap from the hose, dip in water, and continue to rub the wool to make sure it is felted. You will know it’s felted because it will not slip off of the soap. You also will be making a lot of suds.

Continue until you are happy with the results. If you want to add a little more dyed roving, you can do this now, but you will need to dip the soap in the water and rub again to felt it.

Once felted, rinse the soap bar in cold water and squeeze out any excess water.

Place on towel and pat dry.

Let it dry for several days.

With gift giving season approaching, if you are looking for crafts to make with your family, this is fun and easy. These wet felted soaps make great gifts for teachers, friends, or family members.

For those not familiar with felted soap, you use it in the shower or tub by itself. The felting replaces a washcloth or sponge. It’s so soft on the skin. Here I’m using it at the sink.

Eventually the soap will be gone and you’ll be left with the roving. I understand it can be used again to felt soap. I’ll have to try that once this bar is done.