Boiled wool or wool fleece? Quality manager Katja provides clarity
Katja is a quality manager at ENGEL and knows every fibre personally. Her area of expertise: clothing made from natural fibres like merino wool and its processing.
With her experience and great attention to detail, she keeps a close eye on the quality of our products. Regular spot checks are complemented by targeted testing of materials and individual garments, for example for harmful substances and colour fastness.
With her passion for textiles and her in-depth expertise, she embodies what ENGEL stands for: high quality – from the fibre to the seam.
Katja:
"After knitting, the material is first washed. The surface is then roughened on both sides to achieve that wonderfully soft, fluffy effect that many people love.
The fleece is then shaved to a uniform fibre height and loose fibres are vacuumed off – although a few fluff particles sometimes remain. This is normal and disappears over time.
At ENGEL, we have two variants:
How is boiled wool made?
Katja:
"Boiled wool is also made from terry cloth. However, it undergoes an additional fulling process. The fabric is washed for three hours in water heated to almost 100°C. The scale structure of the wool fibres swells and the fibres become interlocked, creating a compact, fabric with many small air pockets that are excellent at retaining heat.
Our knitted fulled fabric has a specific weight of around 440 g/m², but is still more stretchy than woven fulled fabric – perfect for active children & comfortable clothing for women and men.“
Question:
A common question from the community is: Which is actually warmer – boiled wool or wool fleece?
Katja:
"Both fabrics have their strong points.
Boiled wool is more dense and more insulating than wollfleece because of the boiling process – it keeps out the wind better and retains body heat longer.
Wool fleece, on the other hand, is particularly soft, light and cuddly. Its roughened surface has many small air pockets that are warm and breathable at the same time."
Katja:
"We get this question a lot from customers. Wool fleece is usually suitable for temperatures between +5 and +18°C, depending on how sensitive you are to the clothing worn underneath. In cold temperatures, it can be worn as a mid-layer under a weatherproof outer layer such as a boiled wool jacket. Wool fleece is ideal for babies and children during the transition period. The exact temperature is individual, so it is important to pay attention to your child.
On particularly cold, windy days, I recommend wearing boiled wool as an outer layer as well. But even when it is very cold, with temperatures below freezing, wool fleece is suitable for outdoor use, provided the child has enough layers (3-4) of wool clothing underneath."
Katja:
"As a general rule, both materials should be washed as infrequently as possible, but aired regularly.
If necessary, wash them on the wool cycle at a maximum of 30 °C and 400 rpm with a special wool detergent.
Important: Do not use fabric softener, as it damages the wool structure.
Wool fleece can be more prone to pilling due to the manufacturing process – the roughening during finishing, which ensures that the fabric is so voluminous and fluffy.
Boiled wool, on the other hand, is more robust and abrasion-resistant.“
Katja (laughs):
„For me personally? I prefer boiled wool. I love the compact, warm feel, especially when going for walks or in the garden.
I also really like wearing wool fleece – especially at home or when I want to move freely and easily. It depends on the situation – and that's the beauty of it: both fabrics complement each other perfectly.“
