Haven't forgotten the wool felt

I hadn't forgotten about the bundle of wool blend felt I ordered a couple of months ago ... in fact I've been picking it up and patting the layers now and again. I just thought that really I should finish the current hand sewing project (hexagons) before starting anything new. Which is sensible.

But then I had a little brain moment and remembered that somewhere, in a bag, in a cupboard, in a room, there were some dark grey bits of woollen fabric. My mother-in-law gave me some material years ago from her cupboard. There were all sorts in there but I was sure it included a few sizeable pieces of men's suiting.

So I made my poor long-suffering husband drag out bags from dark corners and sure enough; past the winter jackets, behind the bag of bras that don't fit, even past the wedding dress ... a whole big stripey bag of fabric scraps, including the dark grey wool. I could be completely wrong, but I have a feeling they're leftovers from suits or trousers that my father-in-law had made when they lived in Hong Kong.

All three feel like wool to me, but I thought I'd do the burn test just to make sure! I've always wanted to do this, it seems very scientific. Synthetics melt, cotton flames, wool smells like burnt feathers ... which all sounds very simple but my results were inconclusive. It burned rather than melted, and smelt like burnt hair, but there was a powdery residue that felt like melted plastic. So I'm scientifically saying it's a wool blend. That gives me a bet both way, and I'm going to use the lovely soft herringbone (in the middle) as a background for my wool felt embroidery thingy.