How to Felt Your Slippers

To Felt Your Slippers in the Washing Machine

To felt your slippers, add them to the washing machine with hot water and some soap.

Agitate in HOT water for 15-30 minutes until slippers reach desired size. There is a lot of leeway in the sizing here – for smaller slippers, felt longer.

Tip: Make sure to “babysit” the slippers and check on them often. When the individual stitches start to disappear, the slipper will begin to shrink quickly.

To Felt Your Slippers By Hand/In the Sink

If you don’t have access to a washing machine with hot water or your machine is a front-loader (which means it doesn’t agitate), you can felt by hand.

First of all, try in the front-loading washer to get the slippers felted as much as possible. Then, fill the sink or a basin with hot water, add soap, and rub the slippers vigorously against each other in the hot water for 10-15 minutes.

Keep smooshing, rubbing, and agitating the slippers. You can rub each slipper against itself or work the two together. Just pretend they’re really, really dirty. They will begin to shrink and, as with the instructions above, watch them to see when they reach the desired size. Rinse.

Shape the cuff and foot with your hands and let the slippers dry. Machine drying with caution will work, too, just be aware the slippers may continue to shrink in the dryer.

Needle-Felting Decorations

Needle-felting is a really fun way to decorate felted projects.

Using a set of needle-felting needles and an optional needle-felting pad, use your wool yarn to create designs on the slipper, like initials, hearts, or whatever inspires you.

I once needle-felted ferocious-looking teeth onto some crocheted felted bunny slippers, to make them killer bunnies.

As usual, the following video shows you how.

Adding Non-Slip Puffy Paint

You can use fabric (puffy) paint to make your slippers non-slip. Silicone from the hardware store will also work and be very non-slip.

You can paint puffy-paint decorations on the slipper soles, or even write messages of love to the slipper recipient!

Let dry thoroughly and enjoy.

Note: You can also sew suede slipper bottoms onto your slippers for extra durability and traction.

The two-piece slipper bottoms come pre-punched with sewing holes and sock yarn for sewing onto your slippers.

A sharp tapestry needle will be useful to you in sewing on the slipper bottoms.