Felted Slippers: Patterns and How to Felt Them to Fit

Felted slippers are warm, mould to the foot, and cost very little in materials. There are two ways to make them, and the choice matters more than the pattern does.

The two routes

• Knit and full. Knit a huge, loose slipper and shrink it in the washing machine. Forgiving, repeatable, and where most free patterns live.
• Wet felt over a resist. Wrap wool around a foot-shaped resist and felt it seamlessly. Denser and better fitting, and considerably less forgiving.

If it is your first pair, knit and full. The size can be corrected by simply washing again; a wet felted slipper that comes out too small cannot.

Route one: knitted and fulled

Yarn

Untreated wool, aran or chunky weight, held double for thickness. Coarse breeds — Icelandic, Lopi-style, Shetland — felt hardest and wear best. Superwash will not felt at all, which accounts for most failed attempts. See felting in knitting.

Knitting

Use needles two or three sizes larger than the yarn band suggests. The fabric should look far too loose. Knit the slipper 30 to 40% larger than the finished foot — for a 25 cm foot, a slipper roughly 35 cm long before felting.

Stocking stitch felts most predictably. Avoid ribbing and cables; both vanish and both felt unevenly.

The swatch

Knit 20 × 20 cm, mark 15 cm in each direction with contrast thread, and felt it in the machine exactly as you intend to felt the slippers. Measure. That percentage is your number and it is worth more than any pattern's stated gauge.

Felting

1. Laundry bag, a pair of jeans for abrasion, a teaspoon of detergent.
2. 60 °C, longest agitation, no spin the first time.
3. Check part way. Run again if needed — two short cycles beat one long one.
4. Take them out damp.

Fitting

Put the damp slippers on over plastic bags and walk about for a few minutes. They will shape to your feet exactly. Then stuff with newspaper and dry completely, two days or so.

Route two: wet felted over a resist

Cut a resist shaped like a foot with a generous cuff, 35 to 40% larger than the finished slipper in every direction. Draw round the intended foot and scale up.

Then follow the standard method in resist felting: three to four layers of wool per side, overhanging and folded, wet and pressed, rubbed through net, then rolled. Cut the ankle opening, remove the resist, and full hard.

Two things specific to slippers:

• Reinforce the sole. Add two extra layers of wool over the sole area during layering. It takes all the wear.
• Shape on the foot. Once fulled and rinsed, put them on wet over a plastic bag and walk. Nothing else fits a slipper as precisely.

Making both at once, in alternation, keeps the pair matched. Felting one fully and then starting the second is the reliable route to two different slippers.

Free patterns

The knitted felted slipper is one of the most-published free patterns in existence — Ravelry alone lists hundreds, and there are crochet versions that full just as well. Look for patterns that state pre- and post-felting measurements and the exact yarn used, and ignore any that do not. Our general round-up is in free felting patterns for beginners.

Soles

Felt on a hard floor is slippery, and it wears through at the ball of the foot within a season. Fix both at once:

• Liquid latex or puff fabric paint — dots or a pattern across the underside. Cheapest, effective, needs redoing annually.
• Leather or suede soles — cut to shape and stitched on with waxed thread. Best solution and the longest-lasting.
• Non-slip fabric — sold for exactly this, stitched or glued on.
• A needle felted patch — replaces worn felt but does nothing for grip.

Repairing them

Thin patches are easy to mend. Lay wool over the worn area, needle it in from both sides, then work it briefly with hot soapy water to lock it into the existing fabric. A well-repaired slipper is indistinguishable after a week of wear.

Sizing quick reference

• Child, 18 cm foot: make at 25–26 cm
• Adult, 24 cm foot: make at 33–35 cm
• Adult, 28 cm foot: make at 39–41 cm

These assume 30% shrinkage. Adjust with your own swatch figure, and always err large — a slipper that is slightly big can be felted further, and one that is small is a gift for somebody else.