Felted Soap

[DeeAnna]

No one in the original group of posts is active on SMF anymore. It's best to start a new thread if you want to ask a question, rather than tag your question at the end of an ancient thread. If you want, you can reference the old thread in your new post -- that can be helpful to bring others up to speed.

Any soap will work for making felted soap, including coconut oil soap and commercial soap or cleansing bars. Which type you choose depends on your goals.

If you want to make a cute little soap for a fun gift, the type of soap might not matter a bit. If you want to make felted bars for bathing while camping, you might choose a soap high in coconut for good lathering in cold, salty, or hard water. For general bathing at home, I'd use a decent bath soap that is long lasting and well cured.

For my felted bars, I normally use "seconds" from my handmade soap batches. These bars are soap that's perfectly fine, but might not look the best. Most of my recipes are formulated to be long lasting with a goodly amount of palmitic and stearic acid (lard, tallow, palm have high %'s of these fatty acids), because the people who use these bars are using them for normal bathing at home.

Felted soaps aren't everyone's cuppa tea. I make them for kids (they can't eat felted soap!) and for travel. For general use at home, I'm not much of a fan.

 

[itchyandscratchy]

Hi Dee Anna.
Thank you for replying. Sorry I've been lurking for years and learnt heaps from Smf. I've never started a thread b4 because all my quests are answered in other threads.
Is that bad?
I'll start a thread on felting bc it's been awhile.
Cheers itchynscratchy

 

[redhead1226]

Ive been felting soap for a long time and I use them regularly. I love them and they do not keep your soap soft or mold. You just have to move it away from water after use and it dries by the next day. I make these for kids and love doing it. Sometimes I put girls faces on them, really whatever comes to me. But they last a long time. It is what I do with my soap that I'm not happy with the design. But the soap is a good soap so why not just give it a different look? And you don'

t need a washcloth and they really lather!!

 

[itchyandscratchy]

Ive been felting soap for a long time and I use them regularly. I love them and they do not keep your soap soft or mold. You just have to move it away from water after use and it dries by the next day. I make these for kids and love doing it. Sometimes I put girls faces on them, really whatever comes to me. But they last a long time. It is what I do with my soap that I'm not happy with the design. But the soap is a good soap so why not just give it a different look? And you don'View attachment 30669 t need a washcloth and they really lather!!

Hi redhead. They are so cute!!
Are the faces needled on or glued on?

 

[redhead1226]

Hi. i know this is an old post but i was just wondering about the soap that you use in felting. I have just started felting and was going to start making hp soap for them. I heard that coconut oil washed away to quickly for felted soap
is that true, if so what oils do you recommend instead?
Thank you

Any soap works - Ive never heard that

 

[redhead1226]

Hi redhead. They are so cute!!
Are the faces needled on or glued on?

Thanks - It was not my original idea - I saw a video on making them. The faces are not glued on. I use wool felt sheets ( not the cheap synthetic ones they don't work well ) and cut out the parts for the face from that and I use my felting needle to felt those faces on to the felted soap. I have also felted smaller parts like eyebrows and noses, etc with felting wool. They last the entire life of the soap as the felt is also wool and continues to shrink with the soap.

 

[Nita]

I have a small business felting soap. I can't keep up! Wool is antibacterial so it does not mold. The purpose is it's like having a wash cloth on the soap, it doesn't slip out of your hand, makes the soap last much longer, they smell great and are beautiful! I do not felt the corners because I want the handmade soap to show and it helps it get a chance to dry. Check out my website http://www.facebook.com/thefeltedsoaplady for ideas and for all of you that are thinking of Christmas gifts I sell kits for $6 each. There are great fun and make the soap last much longer. If anyone needs help just let me know! It doesn't seem like I can attach a photo! Darn. Check out the website. There are tons of photos and info on there.

Do you have a website that is not attached to facebook? I would love to see your work, but do not use facebook.

 

[Nita]

Ive been felting soap for a long time and I use them regularly. I love them and they do not keep your soap soft or mold. You just have to move it away from water after use and it dries by the next day. I make these for kids and love doing it. Sometimes I put girls faces on them, really whatever comes to me. But they last a long time. It is what I do with my soap that I'm not happy with the design. But the soap is a good soap so why not just give it a different look? And you don'View attachment 30669 t need a washcloth and they really lather!!

Adorable! I have some wool fiber that I don’t like (I spin mostly qiviut) and this would be a great way to use it!

 

[itchyandscratchy]

Thanks - It was not my original idea - I saw a video on making them. The faces are not glued on. I use wool felt sheets ( not the cheap synthetic ones they don't work well ) and cut out the parts for the face from that and I use my felting needle to felt those faces on to the felted soap. I have also felted smaller parts like eyebrows and noses, etc with felting wool. They last the entire life of the soap as the felt is also wool and continues to shrink with the soap.

They're really cool. Great info. thank you