How To Make Needle Felted Items

You can make felt shapes, such as a heart, using the needle felting technique.

Felt has many applications in the world of crafts -- embellishment for knitted items or clothing, pins, necklaces and so on. You can purchase craft felt at most craft stores, but when you want a special color, or a blend of colors in one piece of felt, you may choose to make your own felt using needle felting. Needle felting allows you to make your felt as solid and compact or loose and fleecy as you wish, personalize the colors or blend colors for a certain effect and make as much or as little felt as you need.

Things You'll Need

• Foam block or firm sponge, larger than your felt shape
• Cookie cutter or template form of your desired felt shape
• Wool roving
• Scissors
• Felting needle

Instructions

1. Place your felting block or firm sponge on a stable surface in front of you and lay the cookie cutter or shape template on top.

2. Pull off a small piece of wool roving, enough to make a 1-inch thick wad in the shape of your template, and place it on your block inside the template.

3. Grasp your felting needle firmly and, being careful not to stab your fingers, stab the roving with the needle, pushing the needle all the way through the wool and into the mat beneath. The up and down motion will tangle the fibers together, making felt. Continue to stab the wool within the confines of the shape until the felt begins to clump together -- depending on the speed you work, from 10 seconds to half a minute.

4. Tighten up any loose fibers by twirling them around your needle tip and stabbing them swiftly into the center of your shape.

5. Add second colors by putting smaller amounts of roving in the new color on top of your felt and stabbing it through with your needle.

6. Remove the template and gently peel your shape off the felting block. Trim the edges lightly with your scissors to make the shape crisp and clear.

Tips & Warnings

• You can felt your shape directly onto fabric by laying the fabric on your block before placing your template on the block, then felting through the fabric. Finish the back by using iron-on backing to keep the fibers away from your skin -- they may irritate.

References

• Youtube: The Crafts Channel: How to Needle Felt in Four Minutes, Part 1: March 20, 2009
• Youtube: The Crafts Channel: Needle-Felted Flowers, Crafts Beautiful June, 2008 Demo: April 14, 2008