soft-fabrication
Joining — Dowel and Slots
Threading the dowel through pill-shaped holes in the felt caused too much distortion of the fabric. Cutting slots across the direction of the dowel allows the fabric to conform with less distortion.
Test 1 — 6 mm dowel, 12 mm slots
Result
Due to the thickness of the felt, this method still caused a lot of distortion, so I tried cutting longer slots
Test 2 — 6 mm dowel, 18 mm slots
Result
For this thickness and pliability of felt, and using a 6 mm dowel rod, an 18 mm slot gives a good tradeoff between security of the fit and distortion of the material.