felt

So....I have been digging into my felt again. I recently decided that I wanted to make felt versions of some my polymer clay beads. Here are a few that I have done so far:

The felt that I had in my stash was just a not so nice, purchased from a large chain craft store, polyester craft felt. I have been putting a lot of work into hand sewing my little dolls and thought that it would be a good idea to look into buying a higher quality felt. Plus, I wanted something more Eco friendly. I came up with two alternatives that looked good to me: ecospun felt and wool felt. I like the wool felt, because it is natural and all around better...but it can be pricey. I like the ecospun felt, because it is made from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles, and was less expensive. I ended up purchasing from a wonderful Etsy shop called felt craft studio. I bought her less expensive wool felt ( because is not 100% wool. "It is 60% wool, 40% viscose. Viscose is a natural fibre and feels exactly like mohair/wool"). It is really soft, and came very quickly...even though it had to travel to the US from Australia. I also found Felt o rama (they also have an Etsy shop) that sells the ecospun felt, which I might purchase in the future. Oh...and surprise of the day...I bought a couple sheets of felt from Walmart, just to use on crafts that I was planning to do with my kids (they had a horrible selection of colors, only black, white and brown). When I got home, I looked at the sticker to see what it was made of. It was ecospun felt! It is much nicer than the previous craft felt that I had purchased. So, if I choose to go with something other than wool...it will definitely be ecospun (and Felt o rama has a much better color selection).

What kind of felt to you use? Any favorite sellers to recommend? What do you do make with it? I would love to hear from you!