Nuno Felted Collage Vest with Prefelts

I love layering texture, pattern and color to create the four way nuno felted vest. It's one of my most fun felted garments to make. It is such a versatile piece and can be worn in so many ways from inside out to upside down.  It is the perfect accessory to take on a trip since you can create so many outfits and have it go from enhancing a jeans/tee shirt option to layering it over a dress.  I love wearing it with more color or even pattern on pattern.  Here I have layered it with a long sleeve and long turquoise tee shirt by Mezo. The bottom back of the tee shirt even enhances the Margilan silk hanging out the bottom of the vest.  

I invite you to scroll down to see the process from the dyeing of white wool roving and white Margilan silk to making prefelts and creating the vest.  At the bottom are more pics of the finished vest.

From white wool roving and silk fabric to these luscious colors, hand dyeing with acid dyes is fun, inexpensive and rewarding.  And with this method, you don't have to worry about accidentally fulling the wool.  For complete instructions CLICK HERE.

Create a prefelt by laying out two perpendicular layers of various colors of the dyed wool roving.  To some of the wool, I added exotic fibers and to other areas of the wool, I topped it with various fabrics.  Here I used an assorment of prints and strips in silk and cotton voile.

Laying out one side of the front first.  This side will be the left front which will tuck underneath the right front when wearing it right side out.

The vest is created by laying out silk fabric and topping it with one layer of various colors of acid dyed wool roving after which cut up pieces of silk fabric are layered on top.  Next the cut up prefelts, that I previously created, as well as commercial prefelts are collaged on top.

Working the second side of the front but protecting the side I already created with a thin sheet of plastic.