For those who own as many makeup brushes as I do, there’s a perk and a drawback for it. The perk is you get to play with a variety of brushes and have them handy for any look you want to achieve. The drawback is they seem to love playing hide and seek with you just when you need them. Imagine trying to find your special edition pencil brush and ending up dumping all of your brushes out every morning. That’s taxing and enervating, as well as a waste of time.
The felted brush roll, wrapped up nice and neat with a satin bowAnd that, my friend, was how my life used to be until one day I watched Knit and Crochet Today on PBS and saw them crocheting and felting a tool belt for guys! I was half amused at the idea (how macho is that to wear a felted tool belt?!) and half amazed (how awesome is that to store all the brushes I need?) For those who are not into knitting or crocheting, felting is the process of shrinking a piece of woolen knit or crochet using agitation, soap, and water in extremely different temperature. Just think of accidentally put that very expensive wool sweater in the hot cycle of your washing machine and you get the idea. I’ve felted things before but they were not as stellar as I imagined, mainly because I relied on the washing machine to do the work (which is an easier way, by the way.)
The problem is not all wool fiber felt. You have the color, fiber content, and the weight (or size of yarn) to concern. White yarn, regardless how much effort and hot water I put, do not felt at all. The same thing goes with yarn that has less than 75% wool or washer-safe. Those make good garments but do not felt, so you can make garments with it. In my experience, worsted weight yarn tends to felt the best while those that are bigger and smaller do not work as well. You either spend more time knitting/crocheting the piece or felting it. I’ve felted a bag with bulky weight yarn and it took me 3 times to wash in the machine and one time felting in the bathtub to shrink the stitches to unrecognizable.
(Those of you who are into fiber arts, of course you know what I’m talking about. For those who have no idea what I said, I’m sorry to be such a bore!)
I’ve wanted a brush roll for a while and actually made one for myself with cloth and fabric mending tapes. Although the clothed roll turned out ok and the tapes proved to be sturdier than I thought, it was too flimsy for my brushes. So I decided to look around on the Internet. The MAC tool belt costs $45 and the E.L.F one, which looks almost identical, costs $15. After viewing some YouTube videos, I was impressed with the E.L.F tool belt: it’s roomy enough to store all my brushes while look professional. Although I can get a coupon code for the E.L.F one, the shipping is $7 and I do not need many items from E.L.F to justify the cost. Needless to say, I was really upset to let go of the idea.
After watching the show, I was inspired and determined enough to go to JoAnn’s craft store with a 50% off coupon.Oh my cheese, yarn is expensive these days! A skein of Pattons Classic Wool costs me $6.99! Since when? Thank God I armed with that deadly 50% off coupon, right? I got just one skein of Pattons in Deep Olive and bolted out of there.
I’ve been eyeing those Pattons yarn for a while but did not get a chance to play with them because (a) they’re expensive, (b) the colors are limited, and (c) they are not machine-washable. But in Pattons Classic Wool, you get what you pay for: the yarn is really good and soft to crochet with. Pattons mixes recycled wool with others to make this yarn, probably to make it more affordable. Yet, it’s still really soft to crochet and knit.
If you asked me the pattern, let me tell you I did not follow the directions in that show. It was just pure serendipity and thank God, it all went well! I just winged it my way with double crochet stitches until I ran out of yarn, and then used the remaining yarn to sew pockets and the sides together. Finally, I prepared two buckets: one with hot, soapy water and another one with the coldest tap water I can get. Yes, I hand felted the thing! My hand was red from the hot water and from rubbing the fabric together but Classic Wool felted up nicely after 15-20 minutes. Also, it did not smell like a wet dog, which is what you get when you wash some pure woolen piece of work. Since it’s such a small piece, hand felting is fine. I would not do that to a larger piece, though. After felting, the thing just looked weird and out of shape so I had to reshape it a bit. Then, I just let it air dry indoors for 3 days.
And I got my brush roll. The satin bow came from dollar store and I sewed it to one side with (kinda) matching thread. This brush roll is really sturdy and holds all the brushes I need, all 12 of ‘em. In the future, I can wash it with cold water and soap whenever the brush roll is dirty.
It looks like this when opened and I made a flap to cover the brushes
The brushes in the kitAhem, from top top bottom (I know, Picassa likes to play with me!):
Target dual-finish, EcoTools blush, AwG petite dual-fiber, Target slanted blush, small Maxine's mop (L-C), eyebrow grooming, L-C spot detailer, blending, L-C medium Maxine's mop, L-C AMM, EcoTools concealer, and EDM foundation brushes
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