How to Make Needle Felted Appliqués

Commercial felt is produced in large sheets by larger machines fitted with a thousand or more tiny, sharp, barbed needles that tangle the wool fibers into strong, sturdy sheets of fabric. These same needles can be used either singly or in small groups to create felt appliqués or soft sculptures of wool. Make this small felt appliqué of a funny little dog face with a comb-over to get started on a wide variety of various techniques. Remember, felting is not limited to flat items! Beautiful sculptures are made with needle felting, some using metal armature for stability and others that are completely felt layered and felted together into a finished shape.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wool roving
• Felting needles
• Foam pad or block
• Wool yarn
• Scissors

1. 
   Layer the wispy roving for your base.

   Gently tug off pieces of the base roving color and layer them to create the foundation of the piece. About 3 or 4 layers would be sufficient for a small appliqué or flat sculpture, 8 to 10 are better for larger pieces such as wall hangings or small pieces that will see a lot of use (such as coasters).

2. 
   The barbs on the needles tangle the fibers, creating felt.

   Hold the needle straight up and down and punch through the layers of roving and into the felt pad or block. Repeat this over the surface of the roving. The barbs catch the tiny hairs of the fiber, twisting and tangling them together. Shallow jabs will create a uniformly taut finished surface while deep plunges will create creases useful for adding definition or one piece to another.

3. 
   The felt starts to take shape.

   Stabilize the shape by folding wisps of roving over and punching the fibers into place. You can do this on either the front or the back, but it helps to flip the piece over from time to time to keep the fibers from embedding in the felt while you work.

4. 
   You can needle felted pieces together easily.

   Add layers or extra pieces by bundling roving into an approximate shape and either felt directly onto the base shape or felt each addition separately and attach with more deep plunges of the needle.

5. 
   Fold the second ear in a bit and felt the edges into place to add dimension.

   Create dimension by arranging layers and then felting them into place. Leaving some areas unattached will make the felt appliqué or sculpture more dimensional.

6. 
   Wrapping roving around your fingertip makes small details easy to begin.

   To make small embellishments (like eyes or noses), wrap a small strip of roving around your fingertip to create a circle and then felt it into a small ball on your foam pad before felting it onto the larger piece.

7. 
   Loose roving around the eye and a yarn tongue are felted directly onto the appliqué.

   You can also felt wool yarn onto the appliqué or sculpture as simply as placing a length of the fiber (cut to size) onto the appliqué and felting into place just like you would the roving.

8. 
   For the pup's comb-over, felt only the section right above the eyes and leave the rest free.

   Add texture by felting only the ends of some of the roving into the sculpture and leaving the ends free.

Tips & Warnings

• Synthetic fibers will not felt easily if at all, so stick to wool or other natural animal fibers.
• Felting needles come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Buying a kit will give you a chance to experiment with different varieties at a low cost.
• Needles are fragile and may break easily, so buy extras in case of accidents.
• Gently wet-felting the surface of a needle-felted sculptures will give it a different texture from needle felting alone.
• Watch your fingers! The felting needles are sharp and the little barbs on the bottom inch of each can hurt. Go slowly at first to avoid accidents.

Resources

• Pacific Wool and Fiber roving supplier