Fuzzy felt was launched in 1950 by Lois Allan after discovering the play potential of the small felt off cuts that were created from the production of felt gaskets for tanks and other war vehicles. Allan had volunteered to help with the “war effort” by setting up a small factory producing these gaskets at her home in Buckinghamshire.

She enlisted the help of other local women, whose husbands and fathers were away fighting in the war, to run this “factory”. So that the women could work, Allan set up a creche at the factory with the women taking turns to look after the children.

It was during this time that the idea of making pictures from the felt off cuts first occurred to Allan and she would encourage the children to make pictures in this way.

After the war ended, Lois turned her attention to design the first range of Fuzzy Felt toys that were launched in 1950. Incredibly this cottage industry churned out fuzzy felt all the way up to 1972 when demand grew so large that a move to a proper factory became inevitable.

Lois Allan studied fashion in Paris in the 1920s and it’s testament to her design skills that much of her work is still in production today. Although Lois herself, died in 1989, Fuzzy Felt is still made today, bringing whole new generations the simple joy of creating felt pictures.