How to Care for Burlap and Felt Door Decor

With every year, new trends in all walks of life come into existence and make a new style on its generation. From rock music in the 1950s, to shoulder pads in the 1980s, and hatchimals in the 2010s, you can see that certain trends can greatly inspire and make its mark on history.

This year was no different, especially in the craft world. A huge trend that emerged this past year for crafters around the globe was the idea of felt and burlap art. One incredible craft that you can do with burlap and felt is by making a beautiful door decor!

A great aspect of burlap and felt is that both materials are very versatile. This means that your burlap and felt door decor can reflect any style, season, holiday or any other mood that you are celebrating. Of course, burlap and felt are fabrics after all, and all fabrics have their requirements and tricks when it comes to maintenance and usage. Since the trend of burlap and felt door decor is predicted to rise in popularity in the coming year, here are a few things that you should know about burlap and felt to care for your door decor.

How to Care for Burlap

Get this mongramed burlap door decoration!

Part of burlaps' rise in fame is due to the rise in the trend for economically sustainable practices. Burlap ties into this as it is a sustainable fabric. Burlap is made from woven fibres of the hessian plant. This makes burlap highly durable in most cases.

However, there are a few exceptions. Due to its organic nature, burlap tends to have a strong, plantlike scent which can be increased in a damp setting. Also, burlap can’t be washed with standard laundry detergent as market-wide laundry detergents tend to be loaded with chemicals that are too harsh for burlap. An easy way to get rid of burlap's odor and to erase any stains that might have occurred to your burlap craft, is by using a gentle cleaning solution of warm water with baking soda or vinegar.

How to Care for Felt

Get this pineapple felt decoration!

Felt is another interesting fabric due to its luscious texture. It’s easy to understand why felt has this luxurious feeling to it as felt was traditionally made from animal-derived pelts such as deer or bison.

Later on, redesigned wool fibres were made into felt instead. This then brings us to the present day where most of the felt that is commercially made and used is now created with acrylic or synthetic material, but luckily is still soft and fuzzy!

Everyone wants to keep their felt in this stance of texture for as long as possible but, with everything, the fuzziness can often get worn down to near non-existence. However, this can be avoided through proper care. Since felt comes from animal sources, a musk-like odour is bound to occur as well.

To begin with, felt is sensitive to water temperature so it is a fabric that needs to be washed in cool water or else it is likely to shrink. Two cleaning solutions will work equally well on felt. The first is a special wool soap which is designed without harmful chemicals that are usually in market brand detergents. The second is a homemade solution of vinegar diluted with water.