Needlin' Around: fall felt

I started a second fall felt project this time using leaves with more distinct shapes. In the first version (see previous article), I detailed the leaves using needle felting. This time I am using another technique, embroidering with DMC cotton floss (of which I lots from my long-ago days doing cross stitch). I intend to work other elements into the felting, including beading and embeds (for example, small felt spheres of differing color that are then revealed by carving the top layer of wool, lace or natural items like feathers or plant parts), but not all in the same piece necessarily.
Here is a closeup of some of the embroidered leaf veins:

I certainly need more practice to recall my old embroidery skills, and good lighting and magnification, but it is a start!

I had some thick, brown, needle-felted batts that I wanted to make into shoulder bags and a messenger bag, and make them themed for the four seasons. So, I started with autumn. I have a series of photos to show some of the stages in this process.

First, I laid out and cut the appropriate size of batting. The I lightly covered it with some loose, white, Icelandic wool that I am trying to felt before I purchase it (and it felts well). This is to lessen the very deep, charcoal brown of the base batt. Atop that, I randomly added strands of purple and a unusual coral-orange colored, both 100% wool boucle yarn. To this I layered leaf-like shapes cut out of colored prefelt. And this is what I had at this stage:

I next used a felting needle tool to needle, or "lock in," the main elements I wanted to stay in place (stuff shifts around as you wet felt. See previous posts for more info on using a felting needle). In this photo, you can see that the main shapes are now lightly needle-felted:

Then, I transferred the composition to a large piece of bubble wrap (this presents the uneven surface necessary to encourage the wool to felt, or bind together). I covered the entire project with millinery netting (the kind used in hats) to prevent the wool from felting into itself when I roll it. You can also used a slick, rayon fabric.

See the cut, pink pool noodle in the photo below? That is used in the rolling part of the process.

Below: bubble wrap, wool project, netting:

The next step is to wet down the entire project, saturate it, with a solution of a squirt of dish washing liquid in a 1 gallon bucket of hot water (I actually used a homemade solution of olive oil soap, shaved and mixed with water, and left to soak, but dish soap works fine- I like the natural ones). I wrung out a sponge full of this soapy solution all over the project. You can also use a spray bottle or bulb sprayer, but an inexpensive sponge works fine:

Next, I began carefully rolling the entire thin- bubble wrap, wool project and netting, being as careful as I could to prevent folds occurring in the wool (this was a bit difficult, as this particular wool batting was was quite thick, unlike most commercial batting or prefelt you can purchase):

Here is the roll, tied up with old stockings, on a towel to absorb water (best to have a few old towels around to use to sop up excess water):

Using my wrists, on a tall enough surface to ease my back (my kitchen counter) I rolled it back and forth 100 times, unrolled and checked to see how well the wool was locking together, then I rolled it back up for 100 more rolls. Below I am performing a pinch test, to see how well the wool is locking. Very little is coming up in my fingers, so it is getting pretty well felted.