I'm sure you have seen it too, the metallic felt version they carry at Michaels now, for $2.00 CAD per sheet. It comes in bronze, silver and gold. When I first saw them I thought, oh boy, how can my metallics compete now that Michael's is offering something for such a rock bottom price?
Well, all I can say is you get what you pay for.
I purchased one of each colour a couple of years ago with this study in mind, but it got put on the back shelf until I finally thought, this would make a GREAT blog post and youtube video! And you should definitely check out the video.
So let's back track a moment, let's realize we are comparing apples to oranges:
* The Metallic Polyester felt had a Made in China, 100% polyester sticker on it.
* The 100% wool backed metallic felt I retail is manufactured in the UK, and I purchase it from a wholesaler in the USA. It uses 100% merino wool as the base, and though it doesn't say how, the metallic film is "bonded" to the felt.
The first thing I noticed, was after the metallic polyester felt had been stored in a cloth bag that had been hanging from a doorknob undisturbed for literally 2 years (please, no judgement here!), I pulled it out and immediately was disappointed with the marred surface, just from the sheets casually rubbing together, or maybe this is what happens to the felt over time.
As you'll see in the video, I scratched and rubbed my UK felt to see if I could replicate the marring - nope. This is kind of important to note, because as you're even just crafting with the felt, you're going to be handling it quite a bit - as you stitch, or cut it with scissors - as you even just manipulate it, it does get subject to wear and tear. However, just a bit of light scratching of the polyester felt removed the metallic surface!
So if you're starting with a product that can't handle a wee bit of wear from sitting in a bag for 2 years, I'm not sure what your final craft project would look like!
I then stitched up both samples, because I wanted to see what would happen after a soak to remove Sulky, to me that's kind of an ultimate test.
My 100% wool felt did not disappoint - it stood up to the soaking, and the rubbing and scratching I do with my nail to remove every last bit of Sulky - total winner, no deterioration noted in the metallic layer.
The polyester felt? Not so good. Even just a bit of rubbing removed more of the metallic, which led me to believe it was somehow painted on, not a bonded surface like in the UK felt. The more I tried to remove the Sulky, the more I just ruined the felt.
So the conclusion here: be CAREFUL which felt you choose to use for your project! Consider how many hours you put into the act of making, imagine trying out the polyester version, only to have results like I had!
However, what if you want a bit of metallic accent on a project but metallic wool felt just does not fit into your crafting budget?
I've been thinking about this, and one thing is I would not use Sulky on it. Free hand embroidery would work, but consider how marred that felt surface was in the video. How might you prevent that??
I would suggest trying something like Mod Podge to protect that surface layer. I'm not sure if it will work (I may go back and give this a try to see the results), but I think it might be worth trying!
Since I'm pretty sure that surface is painted on, I would even consider a clear coat spray paint, and see if that protects the surface.
Regardless, I still don't think the metallic polyester felt will have the lasting qualities of a bonded 100% wool felt, which is ultimately what you're looking for when you're crafting Heirloom quality pieces.
I hope this helps you make an informed decision about what direction you'd like to go when it comes to metallic felts, and I hope I this helps prevent some disappointment in your crafting journey!
