To felt or not to felt? Wool soakers.

[Plarka]

I bought a huge wool sweater from the thrift store to make soakers and/or longies and felted it first.  I did it twice, thinking it should be reeeally felted.  Now it's too small and thick to use! 

I've seen a couple people online saying you don't even need to felt the sweater first.  You can just cut it and sew and it's fine.

Can anyone here testify they've done that and it works before I go and wreck another sweater?! I'm trying to save money here, and although they're only thrift store ones, the money adds up!

[RaeRae91]

Hey momma! I use recycled wool almost exclusively and the only time I felt it is for night time longies and soakers... A ppositive about felting before tho is just incase it does get thrown in the wash it generally wont reck it...But back to the point no you dont need to felt for them to be effective.

[Thandiwe]

  I have a sweater I bought at resale that I want to make into a pair of wool longies, but I can't figure out what to do with them to get them to fit well or sew properly.  Kind of having a duh time with it.  Can I ask what pattern you're using?  I know it's not the original content, so pm me if you prefer.  TIA!!

[Thandiwe]

And I felted once on mine, and it seemed softer, but I kind of wish I had felted another time because it's not quite soft enough.

[Plarka]

This is what I wanted to do:

http://www.naturalfamilycrafts.com/2008/02/felted-wool-soaker-shorts-capris-and.html

[Thandiwe]

Thanks for sharing the website!  I like it!

Maybe felt once next time, then lanolize a lot for more softness?  I don't know....I'm in the beginning here with you, so not much help.  Sorry!

[mamaginabean]

I think lanolizing properly is more important than felting; but honestly wool all by itself will do the job. It's more important to lanolize if you're going to be using it for overnight or for times where you might get pressure wicking (ie car rides).