Felted Soap: Good Clean Fun!

I love projects that can be done with the kids, but I have to tell you that I am not fond of messes.  This is why you will not see much glitter in our home, or many paints, or anything that will take me a scrub brush or crazy amounts of laundry detergent to get out.  Here’s my point… I have found a fun project that not only does not make a mess, but cleans messes up!

Felted Soaps!  Have you seen them?  I just did a quick search and found that they cost anywhere from $7.50 to $14 a bar if you buy them online.  Anthropologie even sells them!  You know how I love Anthropologie.  But $14????  Come on!


So anyway, while we were in North Carolina, my friend Hope and I made a trip to a local yarn store, The Yarn Circle, where we heard they spun and hand died their own yarn.  It was a beautiful shop, full of color and possibilities.  We spent a bit of time looking around and trying to decide what to buy, talking with the women in the shop, one working, two knitting and relaxing at a welcoming table.  I’m a total novice when it comes to knitting.  I can knit a scarf, basically, but I had to buy something.  A skein of alpaca yarn, died a gorgeous charcoal grey (yes, charcoal grey can be gorgeous… mine is the one on the far right of the 4th picture), a little knitting kit for Abby, with adorable hand-painted knitting needles and a sweet kitten button, and five beautiful glass beads.  I have no idea what I’m going to do with the yarn, but it was a great price and I really wanted it.

While we were there, Hope and I both bought several ounces of raw wool for felting soaps.  The woman at the shop was kind enough to give us a hands on tutorial on how to felt over soap!  We were giddy… how lame is that.  Two chicks in their 30′s getting excited about soap?  Too funny, but we were.  The plan was to felt soap with the kids back at the cabin, but we ran out of time, so the wool and the soaps came home with me, and this week Abby and I tried our hand at it.  I originally was going to do a tutorial for you, but there are some great tutorials on the internet, here and here.  We didn’t use any fancy soaps, just Dove, but I’d like to get some handmade soaps at the farmers’ market and make some more.  Here is a photo tutorial:

It’s as easy as it looks!  Aren’t they pretty?  They work kind of like a loofah in the bath or shower, exfoliating and cleaning at the same time.  When I used one on the boys the other morning it set them into fits of giggles, which in itself made it worth the effort.  The really cool thing is that, as the soap gets smaller, so does the wool casing… it just shrinks every time you use it.  Isn’t that cool?

SoFino on etsy

Felt Bugg on etsy Aren’t those amazing?  I obviously need more practice!  Do a search for “felted soap” on etsy to see more artistic soaps.  Even, better, try it yourself.  I think they’d make great teacher appreciation gifts, hostess gifts, or thank you gifts! I linked up with The Blog Party!

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Jenny Yarbrough

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Jenny is a wife and mother first and foremost. You can find her here at The Southern Institute, as the founder and owner of the blog, as well as at unboundbirth.com. She enjoys blogging and sewing, cooking for her three picky eaters, and playing tennis with her husband, Tom.

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