Prepare Mohair for Crafting

Mohair

How to Wash for Crafting or Novelty Spinning

Skirted Mohair Fleeces & Crafting Mohair

Here is a handmade Porcelain Santa I made. I made his wig out of sheared mohair locks and I glued on locks for the beard. The trim on his coat are narrow strips of Angora Goat Hide stitched and glued on.

First obtain a well skirted fleece. "Show fleeces" are worth the extra money. Gently remove from its box or bag onto a table. Try to be careful not to disturb the locks. Carefully unroll your mohair.

Carefully grab a handful of locks and pull apart from the fleece. Lay these out and separate from the different lock lengths.

Fill your sink with hot water, the hotter the better (150 degrees), but not boiling. Add liquid detergent (Dish or laundry whatever you find works best on dirt and grease, wool wash designed to scour wool and mohair are very good products) and mix with water. Wearing rubber gloves. Hold each lock and put into the water to soak. It is OK to hold the lock cut end and gently swish around. Try to keep the lock undisturbed as possible. Line them up like soldiers. Gently press the lock down to help wash. Let it soak.

I have found using small mesh bags helps keep the locks intact and organized while washing. Like you sometimes see in the produce dept at the grocery store. Lay your locks evenly inside the bag. Cut end together. Do not overfill. You don't need to worry about closing the open end.

Before the water cools. Gently move the locks aside to drain the sink. Press excess water out. Add new hot water, to rinse. Repeat the previous steps several times until clean. Once clean, lay your locks in single layer, flat on a towel. Roll up towel to remove excess water.

Try a small amount of locks first to get an idea how much handling the locks can take. Some locks may get a bit more messed up, but if the lock cut end stays pretty much together it will brush out. Besides the extra messy ones can be spun as picked mohair or used for other crafting, like angel hair. On the long locks I find wrapping the cut end together with a rubber band, like pony tails, really helps. Now to get that area clean later, during the final wash I remove the rubber band, and hold the lock together and swish the dirty area clean.

After hand washing, gently lay flat to dry. You may use as is or dye (human hair dye for small amounts, or acid dyes for larger amts.) Handle as careful as possible to avoid messing up the lock.

Optional Step: Hand combing the locks.

Once dried, it is ready to brush. Use a metal pet brush (the kind with many short teeth-aka carding cloth) or flick carder. While holding the dried clean lock by the cut end, brush the hair over your thigh, protect your leg.

Now you probably have static. You will need to hold the cut end and dip in warm water with liquid fabric softener added. Squeeze out the excess water, arrange flat on towel or rack to dry. If static later is a problem, lay out and mist with diluted liquid fabric softener and let dry.

Here is an example of washed and combed locks on the left. And freshly combed locks on the right.

More Mohair Ideas

These Santa's Available