Crochet is the bane of my existence as a knitter. While seaming, fair isle and other difficult techniques are no problem for me, crochet makes me want to leap off tall buildings.
For example, I once spent two frustrating hours attempting to crochet a swirl design on a pre-felted bag. Numerous expletives and crochet hooks flew through the air. In the end, I decided that the bag looked perfectly fine as it was, simple and boring.
Many weeks later, I started to hear about needle felting. It was the perfect solution because I was able to embellish the bag that I’d already felted.
In order to needle felt, you’ll need:
A felted piece of wool, fully dried (a bag you felted, or a pair of felted slippers)
A felting needle
100 % wool (not superwash) yarn and/or roving
A piece of Styrofoam
The important thing to realize about felting needles is that they aren’t smooth like the knitting and sewing needles we’re used to. Felting needles are extremely sharp and down the sides, they have little tiny barbs. Jabbing the needle quickly into the wool creates the felt. The friction and heat join the fibers. It’s also important to realize that this process is done without any water. In fact, using wet fibers will cause the felting needle to rust.
Here is a step-by-step process:
1. Prepare the felting surface. Place the Styrofoam under your already felted base piece. (Using a piece of Styrofoam gives the needle something other than your thigh to sink into.) Begin to lay out your design. Realize as you plan your design that since felting causes wool to shrink, your design will pull in a little and you’ll need more fiber to cover the area you’d like to fill. This is especially true if you are using yarn to make lines.
Spread the roving for a transparent effect. Roll it between your hands for a solid, chunky shape. Manipulate it in a way that works for the look you are seeking.
2. Prepare your felting needle according to the package’s directions. My felting needles stick out from a little knob, but yours may be different. If you are going to be felting a large area, and your tools allow it, use more than one felting needle. If you are doing a smaller area, with more detail, use only one at a time for the most control. You’ll probably need to switch from many needles to only one as you need to be more precise.
3. This is the fun and dangerous part. Quickly and repeatedly jab the felting needles into your design, being extremely careful not to poke your fingers, thumbs or any other body parts. You’ll want to make quick, precise jabs that go up and down. You don’t have to sink the entire needle – an inch or so will do just fine. Avoid going in at an angle, or twisting your hand because doing so could
stress the needle and possibly cause it to bend. (This might be a good time to pretend you are taking revenge on the the professor who doesn’t know a good paper when it hits her in the head. Go ahead, grit your teeth, mutter angry words.)
Work in one area at a time and as you become satisfied with how felted it is, move to a different section
5. To get a cleaner, less fuzzy edge, get the piece mostly felted, avoiding the very edges. Then, use your fingers to pull the edge fibers toward the center, creating a bit of a fold. Hold your fingers and the fibers in place while you felt just the edges.
6. If you felt some areas more than others, you’ll create a three dimensional appearance. You can also use your felting needle to focus on creating a line to make a clear definition of where an edge should be.
7. To felt a string of yarn, use the same general technique. Just lay the yarn down, and then felt it in the same up and down motions. Just know that when you needle felt yarn, it especially pulls in as it shrinks.
Continue until you are satisfied with how everything looks. Marvel at your brilliance, skill and newfound optimism. Call the piece “complete.”
About what I used in the photos:
My rovings were from Prairie Winds Farm, Lakeville, Indiana. The yarn that I used to write the word “Love” is Knit Picks, Wool of the Andes in Cherry Blossom. The base piece is also KP Wool of the Andes in Hyacinth. My needle felting tool is from the Colonial Needle Co. Fiber Trends also supplies felting needles, as do many others. If your LYS doesn’t carry felting needles or roving, try a local spinning and weaving shop. (And my Styrofoam is from a mini-fridge.)
Love your needle filting and explenation.
In Holland we also can buy a little needle houlder for one filtneedle. It works very fine.
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Ooh, great tutorial! I have a needle felting kit somewhere… I should pull it out.
That came out great! I’ll have to give that a try one of these days.
That’s a great tutorial, Nicole! I had no idea how to do it.
excellent tutorial. I just took a one hour class on needle felting, but haven’t tried it yet. Good to have this for reference.
Hello!
I surfed over to your blog from craftster.org and I am so glad I did! Needle felting has always been a big mystory to me and now I feel like I totally understand it. I can’t wait to felt something and try out this new technique!
Thanks for the great tute!
nice site, I am building mine and after seeing how nice and uncluttered yours is I may have to rethink how I’m doing things. Really enjoyed the visit. I’m a fiber artist in Maine. Lalalalala
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Ireally need pictures. For two reasons: to actually GET it and then be able to DO it,and: to see if its pretty enough to spark my imagination. Thank you. Thankyou. Beautiful work.
Hi. I would like to know if you would know of a pattern for sheep made with wool fabric, not knitted. I would like to make one for my daughter who teaches knitting and would like to make one for her studio. If you do have such a pattern or know someone who does would you please let me know? I would appreciate it very much.
Thank you for your reply.
WOW! I have never needle felted but I do crochet and make felted purses. These are Great directions. I will definately be trying this. Thanks
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Thanks for this tutorial. I had heard of needle felting but did not know how to do it. This is really informative. I will now have to go and get the needles. Thank you again.
Thanks for the great tips–I just stumbled onto needle felting and I am absolutely addicted. Best of all now I know how to attach yarn and stringy thingies from reading this. woohoo!
Wondering if you have tried what I would uber-felting for lack of knowing the real word for it–taking an old wool sweater and shrinking it into felt and then felting over it? I’m dying to try it myself for purses, there are some great old wool sweaters with neat patterns at thrift shops cheap that must want to have a second life. Thanks again.
I did buy some old sweater. I had good result with all but one. Make sure you keep an eye on how much they are shrinking. One of them got so tight I could hardly cut it . It ended up cutting off the sleeves and sewing up one end as a needle holder. The rest turned out great but it is hard to get enough for anything but a 4-5 x 7 inch clutch
Thanks for the wonderful explaination! I am felting for the first time and decided to use the web as my teacher. I have spent over an hour searching and this is the first time my questions have been answered. Thanks so much ;o)
I have been really curious about how to embellish with felting & your tutorial is so simple to understand & to the point. Can one felt a pair of wool slippers that hasn’t been felted yet?
Is it possible to felt on top of a knit sweater if you put a piece of felt behind the sweater?
I love this article - first because you admit you can’t crochet and I can’t knit (my left hand has no idea what my right hand is doing and so is only good for holding yarn) and second - you didn’t overwhelm me with what can be done…only what to do to begin. Thank you! I have my needles and wool and a felted pair of crocheted (?) mittens to embellish…thank goodness for snow days!
Awesome tutorial! I can’t wait to give this a try!
I tried a loofa I had just sitting around “looking pretty” instead of a styrofoam block. Worked very well & it didn’t have the resistance that foam sometimes has. My quilt shop sells different colors of wool roving & I have even experimented w creating my own felt strips with just the roving. Allows you to custom blend colors, add yarns, etc to embellish other projects.
Thanks so much for the great instructions on needle felting. I’m making my very first felted purse and I have to needle felt all these little flower thingies all over it and couldn’t quite get the jist of it by their instructions.
Hello,
Nice tutorial! I am wondering if felting will work on 1/8″ 95%wool industrial felt?
I picked your site as the first hit to check to learn how to do this and it is fantastic.
I have made a fetl purse and wanted to adorn it.
Thanks,
Barbara
Hi, I make cloth dolls and would like to use needle felting to make the hair. I’m wondering if you can make the felting look curly? Can you make a piece of needle felting to cut out like a pattern piece then attach to the dolls head? Saw a doll, made by a 15 yr old girl, that had human hair that was needle felted but it was quite stringy and the hairs went every which way. I haven’t done any needle felting and am trying to get some idea of how I would go about using this process for my dolls.
Thanks,
Katheryn
This looks like great fun. I’m going to link to your site from my blog. I hope that is Okay considering i’m a crochter. my Dad tried to teach me how to knit, I couldn’t do it. He however made beautiful complicated things.
Thanks for this awesome tutorial! I just heard about needle felting today and I can’t wait to try it out! I’m wondering how you use this technique to form shapes like balls (for beads, etc)? Thanks again for the info!
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