The Needle Felted Jacket

Here's one of the projects I've been working on lately - a jacket made entirely by needle felting. Not that I felted all the fiber into fabric, but the jacket construction and embellishment was done using a needle felting machine rather than by sewing.

The pattern for both the jacket and the embellishment are by Marci Tilton - Vogue #V8430. I'd made up this jacket once before as an embroidery blank. The jacket is intended to have all raw edges (it's meant to be constructed from fabrics that are felted or otherwise fray resistant) so needless to say it goes together quickly! For my embroidery sample, I sewed it using a medium weight polarfleece. For this needle felted example, I used a wool blend which wasn't technically felted but I did throw it in the washer and dryer first to 'full' it a bit. I'm not sure it even shrank but this technique seems to work with any reasonably substantial fabric. You could always add hems if you were concerned about raw edges.

I did use strips of fabric as 'reinforcement' - felted them into the shoulder seams and to reinforce the sleeve dart. Those were areas I felt would need some extra strength. Otherwise, it went together beautifully and seems to be plenty strong. Of course if you pulled on it hard enough it would possibly come apart. But so do traditional seams. I am confident that it will stand up to normal wearing stress.

I'm teaching this jacket as a class at Quality Sewing next month in Silverdale and Puyallup. I'm really looking forward to it - should be a lot of fun and give needle felting machine owners another option for using their machines.