Wool Tutorial I

Hello my wool friends!

Wool_Bundle-2

For those of you who are participating in our RETRO FARMHOUSE WOOL BOM or our WOOL & PATTERN ONLY BOM, as promised welcome to the first of several tutorials on wool throughout this year’s program. Your instructions are on their way to you and will have a lot of this information written out for you in written format but I know that many of you are visual learners so you want to see exactly what I do and how I do it via pictures.

Halfwool

For those of you who are just here to learn about how to work with wool… welcome! If you are interested in getting some yummy wool, we have our new bundle available in full and half size bundles and we have a few super cute FIGS & WOOLIES mini patterns for you to choose from to get yourself started.

4woolies72

Step 1: Gather the materials you will need. To get started you will want the following:

Supplies

  • Good wool. There are many wools out there in the market and many more ways to get some yourself. Here are my tips: I love Weeks Dye Works Wools. This is not because I am not partnering with them to create our lovely bundles of Fig Tree Wools in our color palette. I have always used them for my wool projects. For years I have been hoarding their fat quarters until the idea to work with them finally dawned on me. Duh. Now there are many other lovely wool producers out there besides just Weeks but for the colors, quality and consistency that I am looking for they are my “go to”. There wool is super high quality, made and dyed by them in North Carolina. It is felted which means that is has been washed and dried in heat and that the fibers have shrunk and that the wool is ready for applique and other craft applications without any further work.  A good alternative if you have the time and energy for it, is to try to find your own wools and felt them. Large fabric stores sometimes have some good colors and thrift stores are a great source of wool clothes in interesting patterns that can be cut apart at home, washed on hot and dried on hot to “felt” the fibers. Be warned that your washer and dryer will definitely smell like wet wool afterwards.
  • Freezer paper [available at most grocery and home stores in the same aisle as the wax paper and the foil]. Its original use is for wrapping items for… yes, you guessed it the freezer. But it has the best craft applications known to man. Or in my case, woman. It is perfect to trace onto, comes on a giant inexpensive roll, is easily accessible, has one side that is slightly tacky when pressed onto your fabric with an iron, comes off easily when peeled off, leaves no trace and can be reused many times as a template so you only have to make one. WHAT?? Yes, that’s right. Its perfect and if you don’t already have it. Go get it. Right now. Yes, I will wait. LOL
  • Thin permanent marker. Believe me when I tell you… from sad experience… you want it to be permanent. And thin. Need I say more?
  • Wool scissors. Any small, sharp scissors will work well but my new favorite lately have quickly become the Kay Buckley Favorite Scissors. They come in several sizes and they have “micro-serrated” blades that grip the wool and keep it from shifting.
  • Roxanne’s Glue Baste-It. Again, there are many glue products out there that I am sure are just fine and if you have your favorites that you love, go with that. As for me, I have been using Roxanne’s for over a decade with no complaint [other than a clogged tip here and there] and I absolutely love both the product and the dispenser. That needle-nose tip is the best applicator out there in my opinion and delivers perfect tiny dots of glue for all of my applique. Once you are done using it, clear out the applicator with a long pin several times to get as much of the glue out of it as possible to prevent clogging.

Step 2: Trace your applique shapes exactly on the line from your pattern to the dull side of the freezer paper.

Drawntemplates

Step 3: Cut the templates out on the line.

Step 4: Press the templates to the wool. Be sure you find the “fuzzier” side. Most wools will have a more “right” side and a more “left” side although sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. In my experience, one size is a bit “fuzzier” and one side has more texture. I usually like to use the fuzzy side on the front.

As for the freezer paper, the shiny side is the side that sticks. If you mess up and press it the other way, it will stick to the bottom of your iron and you will need to use some kind of iron cleaner. If you are trying to conserve wool [like I highly recommend those of you in the program do to ensure that you have all that you need to complete your project], trace your shape close to the edge of your wool and press subsequent pieces as close to the ones before as you can. Be especially aware of your placement if you have larger pieces with lots of “ins and outs” so that you can maximize your wool usage.

Step 5: Cut out the wool shape right along the template and do not add anything for a seam allowance. Also be aware of how you are cutting. I always like to remind my students that your finished shape will only be as good as your cutting. Since there is no seam allowance to turn under, the shape that you cut out, will be shape that you have. So if you have a jagged edge here or there or something that isn’t quite as curved as you had hoped for, feel free to clean it up a bit after you remove the freezer paper template from it and you can see the shape fully.

Cuttingouttemplate

Peelingpaper

Step 6: Use the same templates as many times as you can before they lose their “stickiness”. I only needed one of each for this block.

Step 7: Prepare your background. First cut out your background about 1/2″ bigger than you would normally. For those of you in the program, this has already been added into your measurements so there is no need to add more. Second, press the background in fourths [in half once and then in half again] to create 4 quadrants and a clear center point. Third, stay-stitch a seam all the way around the outside in order to prevent the background from raveling- we used a really wide zigzag, but several different stitches are fine to use. In our case, we are using the black MODA Crossweave as our background that we fell in love with last year. It is a woven fabric so it has a tendency to ravel quite a bit. The stay-stitch will save your block from ending up smaller than you need it to be at the end!

Foldedfabric

Foldedandquadrants

Staystitch

Step 8: Now you are ready to arrange your pieces. Use the pressed lines as your guide to lay out your design. In this case each quadrant is the same as the others so the layout is fairly straightforward. Remember to stay out of the 1/2″ all the way around the outside as that is seam allowance and will be either trimmed off or sewn into your final quilt and if you have any shapes in that space, they will get cut off! In this particular design, I would recommend laying out the artichoke stems first for placement, then lifting them up to position the coral blooms underneath them and then adding the outer petals and the center piece last.

Quadrantplacement

Liftingforbloomunder

Bloomplacement

Step 9: Carefully and gently lift portions of the design up, add dots of glue and then lay them back down on the background and press them down to affix them. For the petals since they are so little, just lift them up one at a time, affix a few dots of glue and press them to your background. Add the center at the end. Or as an alternative that will simplify your stitching, don’t affix the center at all until you have stitched the green portions down and then affix and stitch the center at the very end.

Liftingandgluing

Gluepindots

Fullblock

You are now ready for stiching. Stay tuned later this week for WOOL TUTORIAL II to see our stitches, choices of thread or floss and other tips.

About The Author

Joanna

9 COMMENTS

  1. Michele T | 25th Jan 16

    Thanks for your tips, they will be very helpful.

  2. Terri Watson | 25th Jan 16

    I am just venturing into wool applique. This tutorial is very helpful. So far I have used fusible to hold my pieces for stitching. I will try the glue method as well. I also like that you are using cotton fabric as your background as that is what I would like to use in an upcoming project. Are there any tips or concerns I should be aware of when using a cotton base with the heavier wool for the appliques?

    Thanks so much,

    Terri

  3. Karen Ostlund | 25th Jan 16

    You mentioned Kay Buckley favorite scissors. Are they also called “perfect” scissors?

  4. Karen V | 25th Jan 16

    The Karen Buckley scissors are great in any size. I really enjoyed the tutorial.

  5. Tina | 25th Jan 16

    Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!! Wool appliqué has always been a mystery to me and I really wanted to learn just how to do it. Your tutorial is perfect and I can’t wait to get my BOM goodies from you!!

  6. Betty Liehr | 25th Jan 16

    Thanks so much for the pictures. While I have done wool applique before, I haven’t really had anybody give “real” instructions and the visuals are great!

  7. Mary | 25th Jan 16

    This will be a first for me. The pictures are great. Can’t wait to get started.

  8. Carla | 25th Jan 16

    This looks handy. I have always wanted to try wool applique and your tips and a kit might be the answer.

  9. noyoutwo@aol.com | 6th Feb 16

    I didn’t sign up because I wasn’t into wool appliqué. NOW I WANT TO DO WOOL APPLIQUE!!!

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