Help! I want to make a wool cover...

[just_two_02]

I have been thinking about trying to make a wool cover for dd. I bought some Merino wool, but I've read about having to "felt" it first ... do I? Also the mfg instructions on the wool says dry clean... can I wash it like my other wool covers?

TIA!
Emily: :

[Knittin' in the Shade]

once you felt it, you can machine wash it. They say dry clean only so it won't shrink, but since you want to shrink it, you're okay

To felt it, throw it in the washing machine, on hot cycle, low water, high agitation (usually the cotton setting is highest agitation). Let it go through the hot wash, then a cold rinse, then throw it in the dryer until it's dry. It will be nice and shrunk and you can wash and dry without a care

[anabean]

hm, are you talking about felting the yarn before you knit it? if so, how would you do it??

or if you mean felting it once it's done, it'd have to be knitted a few sizes bigger, right?

[warneral]

I think she is talking about a woven wool fabric (vs yarn).

Yes that's why they say dry clean only (shrinkage). Of course I hand wash my wool covers anyways.

I have yardage of wool jersey just waiting to be made into a cover. But I don't care for my pattern shape (diaper covers deluxe by new conceptions). So I am trying to find a good shape to try out.

I plan to use FOE (foldover elastic) to bind the edges and provide elasticizing where elasticizing is needed. I will use snaps that I got (snapsetter snaps). I just got some dye (dylon and rit are good at dyeing FOE) and am ready to dye it. Then once I find a good shape for the diaper cover, I will give it a try!

I can't wait

[warneral]

Oh BTW I've heard to wash and dry on hot 3 cycles to make sure it's fully shrunk.

HTH

[panda]

I just started sewing my first diaper cover. I ordered celedon and deep plum merino wool from fabric.com. It's very nice and it came so fast!

I'm following advice from this site. I downloaded the free German diaper cover pattern, and went to sewdiapers.com and followed her direction for making jersey diaper covers.

To felt the fabric, I washed the celedon wool on hot, dried it on hot, then washed it on hot again with a little eucalan and dried it again. It isn't that much thicker or tighter than the wool I haven't washed yet, but I think it shrank a bit and it's a little fuzzier.

Oh, and I added 1/4 inch seam allowances when I cut out the German pattern. It looks like they serged around the edges of theirs, and I'm sewing the 2 layers right sides together and then turning it, so I thought I'd need the extra allowance. It seems pretty big, but I haven't turned it right side out or put the elastic in the back and legs yet.

warneral - what color are you going to dye? I like the idea of using foldover elastic. This merino wool is very soft, but it seems like elastic binding would be a little smoother hugging the skin. I've never used that before. Can you dye that too, or will it contrast?

[warneral]

Sorry it took me so long to respond Panda! I have eggplant colored jersey (did I say that already?) I am going to dye the FOE a olive green color! I have olive green snaps so I think it will look great. Plus dyeing it the same exact color would be a bit too tricky.

I've learned that RIT and Dylon are good (and easy to use) dyes for FOE (procrit dyes are the best for cottons but not FOE).

You can get FOE at diaperfabric.com. I got mine at a coop. If you want to see if they still have some FOE - feel free to pm me