Hi,
Can I felt arm warmers after they’ve been sewed togethor? will that seam disappear and do you think the size of it would change?
Felting after sewing togethor?
I think the seam will disapear when felted.
But I think the size will change also, possibly drastically. I’ve only felted purses, but you knit them way bigger and looser, once felted it is usually considerablly smaller. Of course, you can felt for a shorter time so they don’t felt as much, then it won’t shirnk as much. You’d probably want to stop the washer every few minutes and slip your hand into the armwarmer to check the fit.
Bear in mind that felting shrinks a project down to something like 60 percent of the original height; width is not usually as much, but it’s still significant.
So, I’m thinking if you didn’t plan on felting when you knitted it, it will be too small after felting.
As Marilyn said, maybe a just a little bit??
One problem is that the knitted fabric of your piece is likely to felt at a different rate than the single thread you use to sew up the seam. The seam will be wavy, as the single thread tightens up more. You may be able to pull and stretch the seam area to lie flat after felting, but it could be a problem.
I have made a Drops felted slipper pattern twice using different brands of yarn. The pattern calls for the seams to be stitched before felting. I used the same yarn to sew the seams and when the slippers were felted you couldn’t see where the seams had been. They had to be shrunk quite a bit to fit my feet. When I was done knitting and sewing seams the slippers looked like they would fit an elephant but shrank down beautifully to fit my size 8 foot.