Felt Trim

The original felt trim on the console was all a bright sea green color and looked rather cheap.  Since the Rohrflöte caps are trimmed in black felt, I thought it would be nice to have the trim on the console match.  I thought it would be easy to search online for wool felt dyed black in various thicknesses, order what I need and be done with that step.  Not so!  I ended up ordering natural colored felt in the thicknesses I needed from Grainger, and then ordered black Country Classic Acid-Wash dye from Halcyon Yarn.  Grainger wouldn't guarantee that their premium industrial wool felts would take dye.  Halcyon wouldn't guarantee that their dye wouldn't harm the felt (wool is usually dyed and then processed into felt).  Oh well- this project has been one experiment after another, so what's one more?

The process was simple.  First, I tested a scrap piece of felt.  Following the dye directions, I added the dye to the kettle of warm water and heated to a simmer.  I added the felt and stirred occasionally for 30 minutes.  I removed the felt to a cold water bath and rinsed thoroughly, then let it dry.  I found that the felt shrank about 3% in length, but became just a hair thicker (sorry- couldn't pass that one up!).  The felt took the dye just fine, so I considered it a success.  I cut the strips longer than needed and dyed all the felt in a fresh dye bath.  I had plenty of extra felt for the bumper strip just above the keys.  I thought it might look nice to have that dyed deep red to bring out some of the red highlights in the surrounding oak so I made a bath of red dye as well.

After all the felt had dried completely, I cut the pieces to the exact size I needed at attached them to the console with fish glue.  See photos of the entire process at the link below:

Felt Album