Felted soap is the cat’s pajamas. It’s like having a washcloth built around your soap! The best part is that you can make it yourself.
You’ll need:
wool (I got mine from this shop)
bar of soap
bowl filled with hot water
scissors
paper towels
How to:
1. Cut a piece of wool that is long enough to wrap around the bar of soap. (“Wooly” commented below recommending tearing the wool instead of cutting for easier felting—I plan to try this next time!) Wrap it around the soap with the ends on the bottom side. You can mix different colors of wool to create different patterns. I went with two shades of grey to coordinate with our bathroom.
2. Dip the wool wrapped bar of soap in the bowl of hot water, and make sure it is completely wet. (It will smell a bit like the sheep at the state fair!)
3. Rub the wet wool in small circular motions, applying more hot water when needed. The wool will start to shrink around the soap. Once the wool is clinging to the soap rub the whole bar of soap firmly between your hands to create a thick lather.
4. When the wool is smooth and adhering to the soap take it to the sink and run hot water over the soap. This will rinse the lather away and finish shrinking the wool over the soap.
5. Wrap soap in a paper towel and squeeze dry. Allow the felted soap to dry completely.
I love how they look like river rocks.
Wow, that is so cool and clean. So then people use it to wash their hands?
You use felted soap instead of soap and a washcloth in the shower.
This is a very interesting project! Can you reuse the wool after the soap’s gone? This would be a great gift for someone who has everything… like a grandmother who has too much “stuff” already. :O)
These would also be great to sell at farmer’s markets!
I wonder how this would work with different types of hair… llama or alpaca, for example. It probably wouldn’t shrink very well, huh?
I guess you could try cutting a hole in the end of the felt pocket once the soap is gone and stuffing a new bar of soap in there. It might work. : )
I love this idea! must try.
FYI, these things have been selling at Anthropologie for around $10 a pop!
Great idea! Just a little input;
If you cut wool straight over with scissors it may be hard to felt the wool ends into each other. Try tearing the wool instead of cutting to ease the felting.
so what kind soap would you recommend? or can you use just any soap bar.
I think any kind of soap will do, as long as it lathers up nicely. I’ve only tried this with Dove soap and it worked great.
How much wool is needed? I see the website you mentioned in your article sells wool in 2 oz and 12″ long.
I purchased two 1 oz packages from the seller mentioned above. Each 1 0z package contains a 48″ length of wool. I felted two bars of soap and have well over half of my wool left over.
The assorted colors of 12″ lengths she sells should be plenty long to do a few bars of soap. You just need it to be long enough to wrap around the soap.
Outback Fibers has a wide variety of colors of felting wool for this kind of project. The Felt Kit is perfect for making felted wool. You could also buy a small amount of wool. Over 70 colors of wool are sold in as little as 2 oz.
umm… excuse me, heterosexual male here… why would you want to do this to soap? I mean, what value does it add? other than make the soap unusable by covering it with a protective layer of wool?
In any case, for the ladies who really want this look but are willing to take a short cut. Just get a Middle Eastern boyfriend and hand him your clean bar of soap before he gets in the shower.
Haha! Eww thanks for the mental image Babak!
Of course the soap is still usable with the wool over it. The wool acts like a washcloth and lets the soap get nice and lathery without getting slippery (no more dropping the soap). It also helps exfoliate your skin.
You can also wet felt little sculptures (I just made a 3-d waterlily and added a pin back — as an art teacher I can get away with this). For the felting junkie, you can also dry felt with barbed needles (sharp!) using a foam block under it — you can make little tapestries onto burlap or wool. Regarding colors, I just bought amazing multicolored roving from frabjous fibers in Vermont. This is my favorite winter sport.
Hi
Love this project, went straight out and bought wool roving and soap. My mum and I have been rubbing in the kitchen with our first 2 bars, just about to try the second 2 bars.
It took about 15mins, we found we got bald patches on the ends but apart from that it’s turned out great!
Thanks for telling us about it
Becky
I just made 5 while watching the Olympics. I’m mailing some to relatives. Thanks for the great idea — practical beauty, usable art..
If you wrap the bar one way (vertically), then add a second layer the other way (horizontaly — perpendicular to first layer) it might hold together better (technique for regular wet felting– crisscross layers to prevent holes, although they happen anyway). Some of mine ended up with cords like soap on a rope (dreadlocks).
I did a bar of Dove and it’s lathering not easily. Maybe I used too much wool or it is suppose to be like that? Any suggestion?
Luiza – It takes a good bit of rubbing to get my Dove to lather up. I think it’s probably normal. Even a bare bar of Dove doesn’t seem lather as much as other soap.