||HomeI used a single 40 gauge felting needle to begin and finish the project. The majority of the needle felting was done with the Wingham Felting Tool for speed, you could do it all with a single needle. Picture is at the bottom.
Silk scarves should be pre-washed, I handwashed with a dishwashing liquid and warm water, rinsing with warm water, then hung them to dry. The roving used for this vest is 64 count (approximate 20-21 micron) dyed wool hand sorted with natural colored wool, then machine carded. I began by pulling the roving into one foot lengths and spread it very thin with my fingers. Be sure you are using a good commercially dense soft foam under the base to protect the sharp needle and yourself. Lay the thinned pieces of roving widthwise across the scarf. Don't worry about staying completely within the scarf area, you can even this up at the end. This single layer was lightly needle felted to keep it in place, repeating until the full length of the scarf was covered.
A second layer of roving was prepared as the first layer, only placed on the scarf in the lengthwise direction. After the scarf is completely covered with one layer east to west and the second layer north to south, I used the felting tool to completely attach the fiber to the scarf. When you lift the scarf from the foam base, it is easy to see the pokes made through the fiber and scarf to tell if you missed any spots.
Continue the needle felting until fiber is uniformly flat over the whole scarf, it does not need to feel hard. We want a soft drapeable fabric. Now go around the outer edges of the scarf and fold any fiber that is 'hanging over' back onto the front and needle felt it in place with a single needle. Next I used a steam iron and pressing cloth to further flatten the fiber, this let me see if any areas would lift easily from the scarf and need more needle felting. Do a second scarf the same way. You do not need to needle felt the back (scarf) side. If you want to do it, a few silk fibers will show on the front and that can make an interesting design on the front; especially with a dyed scarf.
I sewed the two scarves together with a sewing machine. I have previously made smaller pieces and needle felted them together but with a seam in the middle of the back, I felt machine sewn would be more secure. With the two fiber sides facing each other, I sewed the two lengthwise 22 inches to form the back seam. Then the side seams. I left 4 inches unsewn at the bottom for a shirttail look, then sewed 14 inches up to where the armhole would be.
You could use a small strip of roving to go around the front and neck edges to conceal the scarf edge from the outside. I did take a single needle and very closely felted over the edges again but did not overlap to the back side of the scarf.
The needle felting took me less time than writing this up. I spent a couple of hours with several interruptions one Sunday afternoon, not counting the pressing and sewing time.
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