Colour Chart 
Working with Flimsies

 

A Flimsie is a fine layer of Australian Merino wool which has been factory needle-felted in Italy. We buy them undyed and hand dye them in our beautiful range of colours. The common name for a Flimsie is a pre-felt - this is simply a name special to The Thread Studio.

Flimsies are so versatile - they can be wet felted using soap, water and agitation or dry felted on a using needlefelting needles or a needlefelting machine (commonly called an embellisher)
See 'Surface Tension - Embellish and Stitch for the Creative Textile Artist'by Dale Rollerson.
book details here.

When you create felt using your Flimsie, you can add extras such as silk, rayon etc just as you when you lay down wool fibres. A Flimsie provides a special extra. Use one layer in place of one fine layer of wool tops when felting. The benefit is that it saves time and gives an even wool coverage. You can cut out designs and lay them on your felting.

Try cutting your Flimsie into strips to create a felted lattice or an open woven piece. Think of your Flimsie as 'glue' to hold different materials during the felting process. Or create a patchwork. If you lay strips of Flimsies over different materials they will help the fibres grab as you wet felt.

Felt layers of contrasting Flimsie colours together to obtain beautiful felted colour blends but because our Flimsies are hand dyed, you have a myriad of blending colours in each piece.

Cut into strips and weave to create unique fabric pieces. I simply love to hand stitch these together (I love using a matching medium weight silk thread in the same colourway) and once stitched I can decide whether or not to wet or dry felt or leave as is and add other embellishment.
Jacinta's threads here.

Cut some holes in your Flimsie before you felt. Stitch or accentuate these spaces by adding other pieces behind or leaving to layer later. There is so much opportunity for experimentation.

Have fun and enjoy the experience.

silk flimsie colour themes