Unusual Sewing

Here was a challenge! Make a coil of felt to fill an old tobacco tin, to be used as an oil pad for oiling tools.

I'd never seen the finished item, and for once Google let me down. Apparently there is one in the National Museum in Canberra, but the online record has no picture. Here's what I came up with:

I didn't have any wool felt, so improvised with some off-cuts of woollen fabric. So that there wouldn't be threads fraying off the top, I cut a strip twice as wide as the required height, then folded it in half and stitched it together. I then coiled it up and jammed it into the tin with the folded edge facing up. It took just under three metres of strip to fill the tin.

Later it was soaked in oil, and I'm told it works well.