HELP- felting sweaters is breaking my washer

[ancoda]

Am I doing something wrong? This is my first time trying this.

I bought 6 sweaters from goodwill to felt. I decided to wash them three at a time. I put them on for hot wash cold rinse with some soap on the next to lowest water level setting. The first wash came out fine then during the middle of my second batch, my washer filled but would not drain or spin. My DH took the washer apart and there was a giant fuzz ball of the first batch of sweaters in the out take hose. He says I can not felt any more sweaters unless I come up with a way to prevent this from happening again.
So how do you felt sweaters without clogging your washers?

[LaughingHyena]

Whenever I;ve felted things I put them inside a pillowcase to catch the fluff. I usually just throw whatever I;m felting in with my washing since it's only been small stuff.

If I was doing more than one thing I;d put them each in their own pillowcase.

[iowaorganic]

Zippered pillow case.

[ancoda]

Thank you. I had heard of putting felt balls in nylons in pillow cases, but wasn't sure if it would work for bigger items.