Handmade Curly Cream Felted Sheepskin Seat Pad Alice

This beautiful curly cream felted sheepskin seat pad has been made using part of Alice’s 2023 fleece. Sometimes called ‘vegetarian sheepskins’ or ‘felted fleeces’ this is a sheep-friendly craft handmade from natural wool.

The sheep: Alice is a lovely gentle Greyface Dartmoor cross Wensleydale breed sheep. She is a big chunky sheep who has the most magical looking long curly locks that have a natural shine to them and always make me think of unicorn manes. You can see Alice and Lily who also played a role in creating this seat pa and their sheep friends in the photos checking out this seat pad.

The process: This seat pad has been made by carefully selecting and separating individual locks from Alice’s fleece and arranging them in a circular shape. Carded wool from some of our other sheep is placed on the back along with decorative locks and yarn and then felted by hand. The felted wool underside is thick and textured and very carefully made. Decorated with dainty locks from another of our sheep Lily and with handspun wool yarn and Alice’s name needle felted on making this magical felted seat cover even more magical and unique. The backing felt is made from carded wool from our other sheep, as is the yarn.  This is a completely handmade product every element has been created by my hands and the flock at our farm in Wales – from shearing the sheep to washing and carding and spinning the wool to the felting process itself. The sale of this item directly sustains the sheep it pays for their feed and upkeep of the land enabling the flock to live long happy lives here munching away growing wonderful wool.

The seat pad: Made of big curly locks in shades of cream and white this is a dreamy looking seat pad. It is a large size and a bit of a heavyweight as seat pads go. It could easily be used on an armchair or draped on a sofa. It would make a pretty little circular rug too.

Size: Approx 65-70 cm in diameter lock tip to lock tip measuring on the fleece top side. The underside felted area is approx 40cm in diameter – the locks overhand the felt and will drape down when placed on a kitchen chair or stool.

Wool texture: The feel of this fleece is medium soft like very fine curly hair.

Colour: Natural white/cream.

Hair loss: Minimal – there is a little loss of hairs which is normal. All felted fleeces moult or shed to some degree some more than others. Moulting typically lessens over time.

VM(aka hay/grass seeds etc): Few and far between with this item. But as always you may find the odd wisp of hay or grass seed from the Welsh Hillside within the fleece and felt I have done my best to remove the ones I came across. This is a natural item gently made by hand and sheep. There is a whole story behind it! The wool it is made from has spent a whole year outside growing on a sheep. It’s been through a lot, it’s seen a lot, it’s kept a sheep warm and dry and even cool at times.. its probably been dragged through a hedge (or two!), splattered with mud at some point, sprinkled with hay at another and rolled around in the spring clover as it naturally started to rise and break away from its 4 legged creator and I got my shears out – all that and the wool still looks beautiful.. none the worse for wear.. isn’t wool amazing!

Fleeces get washed during the felting process and then they all get a thorough wash or two after they are felted so they are thoroughly clean and smell divine. They are left to dry in the open air or sometimes draped beside the stove in winter. I am passionate about keeping things natural and energy use to a minimum when making my woollen crafts.

If you have any questions or queries at all please send me a message I will be happy to help.

You can meet Alice and read more about her and her pals here.