Wool duffle cloth, as seen here, here, and here , is a thick felted wool material used for insulation in boots, mittens, coats, and other things. It may also go by the name ‘wool frieze’.
I have a set of instructions here for making myself a pair of leather-and-canvas mukluks, which starts with making some custom liner socks/booties, sort of like the ones in the third link. The problem is that I can’t seem to locate duffle cloth here in Iowa; I gather that it’s more of a Canadian item.
Can anyone recommend a source for this material, or recommend an alternative? Perhaps it is known by some other name? I want to stick with wool for aesthetic reasons. I suppose that as a last resort I could buy a couple sets of felt boot liners and cannibalize/customize them…
I’ve never heard of duffle cloth, but it kind of looks like wool felt, or the material that wool blankets are made of. A quick google found the following:
I don’t know if they have the exact fabric your’re looking for (looks like maybe not, but I’d call), but Seattle Fabrics is a great resource for performance outerwear fabrics.
Thank you for the responses. I posted a similar question on a different board and was told that ‘duffle cloth’ is not as thick or felty as I thought it was. I was thinking that it was like the 9mm felt in a pac boot liner, but it’s apparently more like the cloth of a Hudson’s Bay blanket. These trade blankets were cut up and sewn into all sorts of clothing. So apparently I’m looking for something more like wool Melton cloth, or surplus wool blankets, or an old pea coat to cut up, like nyctea scandiaca mentioned.