What a Knit!

Fun Felted Soap Bars

June 20, 2010 at 2:43 am Leave a comment

Felted Soap Bars are a super fun and easy project. Start with a hard (non-glycerin) type of soap. Choose a great scent - I used Lavender and Lemon Verbena. You can use wool batt or roving and other feltable fibers to wrap your soap bars. Wrap fibers once around the bar and then wrap again the length of the bar. You want your layers of fibers running perpendicular. Make sure you cover the corners completely (rounded corners are alot easier).  Add some decoration with colors and patterns. You will want your bar to feel evenly padded all the way around. When you are happy with your soap bar, carefully stretch a short length of cut pantyhose and cover the bar of soap. Now for the fun! Fill a basin with some hot water. Dunk the nylon stocking clad bar of soap into the water until the fibers seem like they are wet. Use a little hand soap or Murphy’s Soap and just lightly soap the outside of your soap bar and start rolling and massaging in your hands. After a few minutes, take a piece of foam shelf liner (looks like mesh) and roll the soap up in the mesh. Roll back and forth about 15 times. Then  unroll and re-wrap the soap in the opposite direction. Roll 15 more times. Carefully take the soap out of the nylon stocking and continue to massage in your hands. The wool has started to felt by now but may look a little baggy on your soap bar. Keep on massaging. Dunk the soap quickly into the hot water. Massage some more. Now wrap the soap in the foam shelf liner and roll in both directions again. Unwrap and take a look. If you need more felting keep massaging. When you like the way the felted soap bar looks, roll out any excess moisture in a towel. Re-shape and let it dry. The felt will shrink a little as it dries and you should end up with a nice snugly felted soap bar.

Entry filed under: Things Created. Tags: .