How Are Hats Made?
The Felting Process – It is probable that most people think of felt as a kind of cloth, smoother and tougher than cotton or woolen fabric, but cloth nevertheless. The fact is that there is no likeness whatsoever in the principles of production between felted fabric and woven fabric. Felt differs from every other fabric in that it is made of a myriad of short, single animal fibers which are interlocked by their natural tendency to crawl and twist when kneaded and manipulated in hot water and steam. Felt is the strongest fabric known because every fiber is interlocked in every direction with a number of other fibers. All other fabrics are made of fibers, which are first twisted into thread and then woven by hand or machine. As these threads are always woven either in right angle or parallel lines, the woven fabric may be torn apart along a straight line. Felt can be made into the smoothest fabric known, once again because it is made of tiny single fibers interlocking in every direction r
