great,easy holiday gift, for teachers, freinds and relatives~ felted soap.

felted soap makes an impressive and affordable gift

ever since I saw a how to demo on martha with the very funny gary marshall, (uber director) i wanted to try to make felted soap. sounds strange , but actually quite clever as the felting around the soap acts as a wash cloth/loofa. the demo was hysterical as i could not think of a less "crafty" person to attempt such a kooky diy project with. it was a great segment, not only did i laugh but i learned how really easy it was to make. this year felt is a huge trend in holiday decor, and of course diy is always in fashion.
so i watched the clip one more time~ on martha's site. made a list of supplies and made my own holiday gifts. Its so easy,  really affordable and beautiful to boot.
this would be a great weekend to collect the materials and do this project with the kids+(not to mention you can bathe the kids at the same time with all the sudsy fun) grandma's gonna love it, and the aunties are too.

                                                                      
                                                                                              {Felted Soap}

You will need~

Round  shaped soap , available at stores like World Market

      Roving at least 3 colors~ available at most yarn stores you can find "roving" at a local yarn store as well as online.
Cut off bottom of pantie hose. (the foot)

4.   Warm water and a bowl

5.   Drying rack (I use a bakers cooling rack)

Instructions~

1.   Take a small amount of the roving, wrap the soap tightly, then wrap again with another color, allowing some of the roving underneath to show. Add small bits of roving here and there. Once you have the soap wrapped.

2.   Dip the wrapped soap into the bowl of hot water. Start to wrap the wet roving around the soap tightly while squeezing the excess water out.

3.   Take the wet wrapped soap and place into the pantie hose, and wrap the hose  *(it should be the foot of the hose, like a pocket) tightly around the soap and start rubbing the soap in the hose vigorously , to encourage the roving to start felting and melting together. It will become soapy this is part of the process, you can rinse the suds, before you remove the felt covered soap from the hose.

4.   Once the roving is tightly encasing the soap, gently remove felted soap from the hose, and place it on the drying rack to dry. Drying will take 24 hours.

wool roving comes in assorted colors + feels like cotton candy