This is one of the most fun projects I've ever done. I took a second hand wool blanket I bought years ago for next to nothing, and I dyed and felted it in the washing machine. The dye I used was a combination of dark plum and bright scarlet, which produced a rich purple that I absolutely love, and that changes its tones with the light.
My new felted blanket has become the curtain for the glass door that opens onto the terrace where we eat in the warm season (here) and hang the laundry year 'round. I don't actually like curtains, and we don't have them in our house (except on that same terrace door in the heat of summer to keep the sun out - I can't quite picture that kind of heat right now, it's so cold). Instead, we have shutters at nighttime, and because we don't have any neighbors we can do without curtains, and enjoy the unobstructed views of the outdoors throughout the day.
But that terrace side is the coldest of the whole house, and even though this doorway is double glazed, its big enough that a lot of cold gets in, and goes straight into the kids' room. So, in an attempt to find new efficient ways to keep the cold out and the warmth in, I decided to add this extra woolen layer of insulation to that door.
My felted blanket curtain required minimal sewing, as the beauty of felt is that you can leave the edges raw, and do without hemming too. All I had to do was make the loops for the curtain rod, which took all of 15 minutes to do: I just cut off a strip of the blanket lengthwise, then I cut that strip into eight equal pieces, and sewed them as loops to the top of the blanket curtain.
I must say, it's kind of cosy every day to draw our second-hand felted blanket curtain at nightfall. What's more, it actually works: I'm convinced that it's a lot warmer in that side of the house now.
Oh, I forgot: I also discovered that this large felt blanket is the perfect canvass on which to experiment with more needle felting. Since taking the above photo, I've added a few more floral details, and I'm thinking of doing a needle felting embroidered border all the way along the bottom and the sides of the blanket.
