Tag Archives: felt making

CROCHET, FELTMAKING, Fun Projects, Videos

Felting Project – Felt Necklace

This easy felting project makes a felted necklace with a bit of handspun yarn, crochet and wool roving.

I had a bit of leftover handspun single spun merino wool yarn that I crocheted for the base of the necklace. Using a 4.5 mm crochet hook, crochet a chain of approx. 100 stitches ( 36 inches). Join. Using a slip stitch work the ends into the chain for about an inch or two.

Wet Felted Necklace
Wet Felted Necklace

How to Crochet a Chain Stitch

If you are new to crochet, here are some instructions to get you started.

chain crochet
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I used a similar method to felt the wool balls into the crochet chain, as I used when I made the hand felted Easter eggs.
You will need:
1 bowl of cold tap water.
1 bowl of hot tap water.
Add a bit of dish detergent to the bowl of hot water.
Small bits of dyed merino wool roving.

Begin by felting the crochet necklace base. Dip it in the hot soapy water and rub the necklace vigorously between the plam of your hands until it begins to felt.

Take a small piece of dyed wool roving and wrap it around the crochet necklace, forming a small ball.
Dip the ball of wool into the bowl of hot soapy tap water.
Rub the wool roving in the palm of your hand, forming a ball or bead shape.
Continue to rub it vigorously and continue to dip it in the hot soapy water.
The wool will start to harden and form a ball shape.
When it starts to harden, dip it in the cold water and continue to roll it between the palms of your hands.
Alternate between dipping the wool ball in the hot water and cold water, squeezing out excess water.
When the wool ball has become quite hard (about 3-4 minutes of rolling)
Pinch and shape the ball into a around ball or egg shape.

felt necklace

Continue to roll in your hands and dip into the cold and hot water
until you are happy with the consistency of the hardened felt.

If you wish to make larger ‘beads’ wrap a bit more roving around the partially felted ball and continue the felting process. Dip it into hot water and continue to rub between your hands as above. Alternate between hot and cold water and rubbing.

felted necklace

Then continue making more felt balls working your way around the necklace. Use different colours of wool roving and have fun!

If you try this project, I hope you will post a picture on our Facebook page.

Felting Projects

Wet Felted Easter Eggs
How to Make Felted Easter Eggs

More about Feltmaking

Felted Posey Pot

How to Make Handmade Felt
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Felting Books

Hand Felted Jewelry and Beads: 25 Artful Designs
Quick & Clever Felting
Felt Frenzy: 26 Projects for All Forms of Felting
Heartfelt: 25 Projects for Stitched and Felted Accessories

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50 Colors Wool Fibre Roving DIY Needles Felting Starter Kit Handcraft Mat Tools

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50 Colors Wool Fibre Roving DIY Needles Felting Starter Kit Handcraft Mat Tools

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FELTMAKING

Felted Posey pot

Recently I purchased a feltmaking kit from my favourite local sewing shop – Clothkits. The felting kit was made by Gillian Gladrag.

The felting kit contains all you need to get started with feltmaking – a large bamboo mat, a piece of netting, and an assortment of dyed wool roving.

felt posey pot
I also purchased a kit for making a handfelted purse.

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felting kit

The purse kit contained enough dyed wool roving for making the purse, full how-to instructions and a plastic template that was used to shape the purse.

I followed the instructions for making the purse – and it did turn out as the instructions said it would. However, I was not entirely happy about the finished size. I thought it was a bit too small to make much of a purse. I tried to stretch the felt to make it larger, but it was too thick. This was my mistake – not the maker of the kit. I think I should have used thinner layers of felt as I was laying them out on the felting surface. Then it would have been much easier to stretch the purse into a larger shape.

Felted Flower Pot

But all is not lost – I decided to reshape the purse into a flower pot instead and fill it with felted flowers.

How to Make the Felted Flower


To make the felt flowers, I felted a few different coloured pieces of felt. I made these much thinner this time so that they would be very pliable. The felt squares were approx 8 – to 10 inches in size.


Once the squares were felted using the rolling mat, I continued the felting process by dipping the squares alternately in hot and cold water to felt them further to quite a firm stage. The felt squares shrunk a bit more to about 5-6 inches.

I folded the felt piece in half and half again, and cut out a circular, petal shape from the centre leaving about an inch of trim around the outside.

The inner circle will be the base of the flower, and the outer trim the petals.

Arrange the petal trim around the base of the flower, starting with the outside and working your way in.

Begin to needle felt the petal trim to the base of the flower, felting along the inner edge, and leaving the outer edge loose, as petals.

Keep felting your way along to the centre of the flower, arranging the petals in a circular shape into the middle. Use the felting needle until the petals are firmly in place.

Turn the flower over and using the felting needle, felt the bottom of the flower so that it is firm and holds the petals in shape. Needle felt a few indents into the flower so that the bottom of the flower doesn’t lay flat but is also shaped.

And to add a finishing touch, felt a bit of black wool into the centre of the flower.

felted flowers


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More Feltmaking Projects

Felted Necklace
Needle Felt Dolls
Felted Eggs
Making Handmade Felt
Nuno Felting
Felting

Feltmaking Books

Felting – The Complete Guide
Combine painting and sculpture, wrap it up in the delightful texture of wool, and you have felting.
UK: Felting

Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques
How to make the cutest little miniature animals, using just a few simple tools and some wool roving.
UK: Little Felted Animals

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FELTMAKING, Handspun Yarns, Knitting Patterns

Knitting Pattern – Seed stitch hat: aa020204

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The Yarn

I spun some hand dyed Corriedale top for this hat. It was spun at approx. 8 tpi and 12 wpi.

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Knitted Hat Pattern

Knit in the round on circular needles
Cast on 80 stitches

Rolled Brim:
Knit 8 rows

Purl 3 rows

Seed Stitch:

Row 1

Knit

Row 2

K1, P1

Row 3

Knit

Row 4

P1, K1

Continue knitting in Seed Stitch for a length of 5 inches:

Top Edge:

Knit 3 rows

To begin decreasing for the top of the hat, divide the hat into 8 equal portions:

Knit 9, K2 Together,
Repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit.

Knit 8, K2 Together, repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit

Knit 7, K2 Together, repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit

Knit 6, K2 Together, repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit

Knit 5, K2 Together, repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit

Knit 4, K2 Together, repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit

Knit 3, K2 Together, repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit

Knit 2, K2 Together, repeat to end of row.

Next row – Knit

Break the yarn leaving about 6 inches of thread.

Using a darning needle, thread the yarn through the remaining stitches on the needle.

Pull the stitches together tightly and sew the remaining end in.

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Machine Felting

Now comes the scary part. To felt the hat, you will need to wash it in your washing machine. If you have a top loading machine, this process is a bit more controlled, as you can open the lid on the washer and check on the hat every few minutes. Since I’m now living in London, I only have a small side loading washer, that doesn’t open during the wash cycle.

Yes, this was nerve wracking, but I put the hat into the washer and added about a tablespoon of liquid washing detergent into the detergent loading tray. I set the washer to the gentlest setting, turned it on, and tried not to fret.

I did not add anything else to the washer – no other clothing, tennis balls, running shoes or other items. ‘When you add other things, it creates more agitation in the wash cycle, and causes the woollen item to felt more.

The end result was perfect!

Knitting Patterns

Shetland Squares Charts
Lichen Slippers
ABC’s
Raglan Sweater Pattern
Sarah Lund Jumper

Knitted Hat Patterns

Weekend Hats: 25 Knitted Caps, Berets, Cloches, and More
Animal Hats: 15 patterns to knit and show off
One-Piece Knits: 25 Seamless Patterns Knitted in the Round-Hats, Bags, Scarves, Sweaters, Mittens and More
Cats in Hats: 30 Knit and Crochet Hat Patterns for Your Kitty

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Ashford traveler spinning wheel single drive

$187.00 (2 Bids)
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Antique American Little Saxony Spinning Wheel Beautiful & Complete Working!

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FELTMAKING, How To

Felt dolls: aa090205

I attended a needle felting workshop. Here’s how to make one of these wonderful little people.

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Needle Felting
The Parts:
Fleece
Body, Head, Mouth, Eyes, Clothing

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The Body

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Form a piece of wool into a cone shape, and jab the wool with the felting needle, all over. Continue to push the needle in, working your way around the cone. Be very careful not to jab your fingers as the needles are very sharp..

Continue to work the needle around until the cone becomes quite hard. Leave the top centre a bit softer and form a bit of a dent into the top of the cone, as you will be needle felting the neck/head into this.

The Head

Take another piece of fleece and shape it into a small ball. Needle felt this all around until it is medium firm.
Take another piece of fleece and wrap it around the round ball, leaving the loose ends to form the neck.

The Nose

Take another small piece of fleece and fold it 3 times in one direction and then fold it over. Felt this into place on the head, forming the nose.

Position the neck into the indentation in the top of the cone-shaped body. Needle felt the neck/head into place.

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Making the Top Lip

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Take a very small piece of fleece and needle felt a thin line down the centre

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Top Lip

Lift the felted fleece carefully from the foam sheet and fold it in half
Needle felt the outside edge of the fold until it is quite firm

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Place the Top Lip under the Nose
Holding your thumb under the lip, carefully needle felt the lip into place, feathering in the edges of the fleece.

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The Chin

Form a small ball and place it under the top lip, and needle felt it into place.

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Bottom Lip

Make the Bottom Lip the same way as the Top Lip

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Needle felt the Bottom Lip into place, covering the chin and smoothing the edges into place.

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Form The Cheeks

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Take small pieces of fleece and shape them into cheeks and needle felt into place

The Eyes

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Making the Eyes
Using white wool form small balls and needle felt the eyes into place

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Add some black wool for the centre of the eyes and add a touch of white.

Now that you have the basic shapes made for the face, you can continue to needle felt it todefine the desired shape and look of your needle felted doll. To design the clothing, needle felt small pieces of roving and shape these into skirts, pants, hats etc to clothe your doll. Add them to the doll and lightly needle felt them into place.

The felted little people:

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Feltmaking

Felted Posey Pot
Felted Eggs
Felt Necklace
Felted Kindle Sock
Feltmaking Books

Needle Felting Books

Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques
I Felt A Bit Festive: Create Crazy Caricatures From Needle-Felted Wool
Needle Felting: Sculpting People With Wool
Wild and Tame Needlefelt Animals: 24 Adorable Animals to Needlefelt With Wool

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ANTIQUE UNIQUE WORKING SPINNING WHEEL SIGNED

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Ashford traveler spinning wheel single drive

$187.00 (2 Bids)
End Date: Sunday Nov-24-2019 17:00:01 PST
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Antique American Little Saxony Spinning Wheel Beautiful & Complete Working!

$350.00
End Date: Monday Dec-16-2019 20:43:41 PST
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Easter Crafts, FELTMAKING, Videos

Easter Feltmaking

A collection of felted Easter crafts to inspire!!

How to wet felt Easter eggs

Needle Felted Easter Bunnies
Simply adorable!

Needle Felted Peeps
Bunnies tend to multiply…

Felted Easter Basket
Knit and felt this Easter basket.

Easter Bunny Felting Pattern
Instructions for needle felting Easter bunnies.

Needle Felted Spring Chick Kit
All you need to make your own felted chicks.

Sochi Felted Birds
Sochi Felted Birds

Etsy: Wet Felted Easter Eggs
How to Make Felted Easter Eggs

More Easter Crafts

More Easter Crafts and Projects
Easter Knitting Patterns
Easter Crochet Patterns
Easter Cross Stitch and Needlework Patterns
Easter Clipart
Easter Weaving, Dyeing and Spinning Crafts
Natural Easter Egg Dyes
Easter Beadwork
Easter Tapestry
Easter Basketry
Easter Feltmaking

Feltmaking Books

Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques
How to make the cutest little miniature animals, using just a few simple tools and some wool roving.
UK: Little Felted Animals

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50 Colors Wool Fibre Roving DIY Needles Felting Starter Kit Handcraft Mat Tools

$15.97
End Date: Saturday Dec-14-2019 1:43:03 PST
Buy It Now for only: $15.97
Buy It Now | Add to watch list

50 Colors Wool Fibre Roving DIY Needles Felting Starter Kit Handcraft Mat Tools

$13.05
End Date: Saturday Dec-14-2019 1:43:03 PST
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FELTMAKING, Thanksgiving Crafts, Videos

felting-tgiving

Thanksgiving Oven Mitt
Make this handfelted oven mitt

Thanksgiving Decoration Swap
Hand felted turkey and fall leaves.
You Tube – How to Needle Felt a Pumpkin

Thanksgiving Crafts
Thanksgiving Beadwork

Thanksgiving Knitting Patterns and Projects

Thanksgiving Crochet Patterns

Thanksgiving Cross Stitch & Needlework Patterns

Thanksgiving Clipart

Thanksgiving Feltmaking Crafts

Needle Felting Crafts

Beginner’s Guide to Needle Felting

Little Needle-Felt Animals: 30 Cute and Easy-to-Make Friends

Wool Pets on the Farm Needle Felting Kit

Thanksgiving Felt Making

50 Colors Wool Fibre Roving DIY Needles Felting Starter Kit Handcraft Mat Tools

$15.97
End Date: Saturday Dec-14-2019 1:43:03 PST
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$13.05
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FELTMAKING, Natural Dyes

International Fungi and Fibre Symposium 2010 Felted Hats: aa091610e

I took a class in making felted hats at the 2010 International Fungi and Fiber Symposium in Gysinge Sweden. All the hats were dyed using natural mushroom dyes. Fabulous fun!

felted hats


Stretching and shaping the felted hat onto a hat form.
After trying on my hat, we decided that I needed a wider brim, so the hat was pulled down gently and stretched and steamed to form the brim. While the wool felt is still wet, it is very pliable and can be gently shaped.

Happy Hat Makers

Mushroom Dye Symposium Workshops

Dyeing and Picking Mushrooms
Display of Fungi Dyed Crafts
Fabric Printing with Fungi pigments
Felted Hat Making

Mushrooms for Color

International Fungi and Fiber Symposium 2012
The next IFFS will be held in Jaca, Spain on Oct 8 – Oct 15, 2012.


Mushroom Fungi Natural Dye Books
The Rainbow Beneath My Feet: A Mushroom Dyers Field Guide
Natural Colors to Dye For – How to use natural dyes from plants and fungi
Mushrooms for Color
Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments, Myco Stix

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ANTIQUE UNIQUE WORKING SPINNING WHEEL SIGNED

$149.99
End Date: Saturday Dec-14-2019 16:44:57 PST
Buy It Now for only: $149.99
Buy It Now | Add to watch list

Ashford traveler spinning wheel single drive

$187.00 (2 Bids)
End Date: Sunday Nov-24-2019 17:00:01 PST
Bid now | Add to watch list

Antique American Little Saxony Spinning Wheel Beautiful & Complete Working!

$350.00
End Date: Monday Dec-16-2019 20:43:41 PST
Buy It Now for only: $350.00
Buy It Now | Add to watch list

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Books, FELTMAKING

Book Store: Feltmaking Books

A hand picked selection of feltmaking pattern books and how-to instructions for the beginner and advanced felter.

Felting Fibres Inspiration
A lovely notebook to record your felting ideas.

Uniquely Felt
UK: Uniquely Felt

Feltmaking (The Art of Crafts)
Clear step-by-step instructions to make a series of projects, from beginner to masterclass and on the way you will learn about sheep and wool, the historical and anthropological background to feltmaking, and its mythology.
UK: Feltmaking

Felting – The Complete Guide
Combine painting and sculpture, wrap it up in the delightful texture of wool, and you have felting.
UK: Felting

Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-Felting Techniques
How to make the cutest little miniature animals, using just a few simple tools and some wool roving.
UK: Little Felted Animals

Kindle Feltmaking

Quick And Clever Felting
Kindle Edition
range of easy-to-follow techniques including needle felting, wet felting, fulling and using store-bought felt fabric are explored though projects such as jewelry, flower corsages, bags, slippers, cushions and more.
UK: Quick and Clever Felting
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