As promised, I’m following up with some more across the board ideas of what to do with needle felting and wool roving.
Here’s what I did with one of my owls. First, I felted him onto a piece of hand dyed wool, simply by placing him and the wool on the mat and punching away. In general, any fabric with wool content will work, just make sure it’s not something you plan to wash often.
Next, I used this tutorial to sew the wool into a lined zipper pouch. This is the first zip pouch I’ve ever made, and while it’s not perfect, it’s functional and looks pretty darn cute. The tutorial is excellent and easy to follow.
You could also use the owl--or your own needlefelted creation- as a patch for a sweater with a moth hole. You aren’t limited to roving, either. Wool felt, usually sold in sheets or yardage, will felt to other wool. And any yarn with a high wool content (over 50 percent, generally) should be feltable.
Two years ago I felted some Brown Sheep Wool to this sweater, because I liked the loopy design. And who am I kidding—I had some toothpaste stains that I wanted to hide creatively. Just so you know, this sweater is not wool and I’ve worn it regularly. So long as you only wash your item in cold water and lay it flat to dry, you should be good to go.
Needle felting is also a great way to embellish any felted item you’ve knit or crocheted. Check out this tutorial by All Buttoned Up .
Here’s another lovely how-to by felting whiz Betz White, who shows you how to blend colors as you felt. By the way, I’m totally with Betz—I think it’s completely okay to cut into the felt pieces.
Here are a few other fun instructionals from around the web:
*Adorable Kid’s Sweaters from Martha herself (templates included)
*Craftlog Felt Flower
*Needle Felted Pillow
*Monster Crochet’s Eyeballs
*Blog-Doris’ Snowflake (a more precise way to felt, by filling in drawn templates)
And here's some design inspiration from etsy:
*Cute rainbow slippers
*Notebook Cover (I love how this looks like a chalk drawing)
*Tote
*Amazing wool headband
Needle felting is also a great way to embellish any felted item you’ve knit or crocheted. Check out this tutorial by All Buttoned Up .
Here’s another lovely how-to by felting whiz Betz White, who shows you how to blend colors as you felt. By the way, I’m totally with Betz—I think it’s completely okay to cut into the felt pieces.
Here are a few other fun instructionals from around the web:
*Adorable Kid’s Sweaters from Martha herself (templates included)
*Craftlog Felt Flower
*Needle Felted Pillow
*Monster Crochet’s Eyeballs
*Blog-Doris’ Snowflake (a more precise way to felt, by filling in drawn templates)
And here's some design inspiration from etsy:
*Cute rainbow slippers
*Notebook Cover (I love how this looks like a chalk drawing)
*Tote
*Amazing wool headband
For more eye candy, try the Flickr Needle Felting Pool.
And if you need a true step by step, check out one of our flower patterns or try a back issue of Adorn Fall 06 (I daresay we worked up some cute motifs in that one!). Happy felting!
