Easy! 5 Steps to Clean Small Felt Toys.

Making felt toys and accessories has been a bit of an obsession for me lately. They’re cute and easily customized with my Brother embroidery machine.

Felt finger puppet toys — Dog, daughter and mother finger puppets waiting to be cut out.

I was concerned that I didn’t know the best way to clean them so I could share that information with my customers. Luckily (HA!) it didn’t take Thaddeus long to soak the finger puppet set I gave him for his birthday in a smoothie.

Washing them in the washing machine on cold and air drying was a possibility. I think that would work, but I worried about them getting distorted, fuzzy or lost with all the socks that go missing. Plus, Thadd was very anxious to see that they weren’t ruined, so the quicker I got them clean, the better.

Here’s the steps I used to clean his felt finger puppets:

Fill a large bowl about halfway with lukewarm water.
Add a drop of dish soap.
Place the felt finger puppets into the water and gently swish. Heavily soiled items may need to soak for 5-10 minutes.
Rinse with lukewarm water to remove any soap residue.
Press the excess water out between towels and lay flat to air dry.

This method should work well for any small toys without a lot of stuffing, as well as for my felt snap clip covers. I would remove the metal barrette for the snap clips first. In general, I think the keys to keeping them looking like new after washing are making sure the water isn’t hot, minimal friction and air drying.

Finger puppets

All of the finger puppets seen below can be found here: https://subearthancottage.com/?s=finger+puppets&post_type=product Felt and thread colors are customizable. Purchases of five or more come with a random print drawstring bag for storage.