Needle felting: How to needle felt

Needle felting is a craft where you slowly felt wool roving using a needle. It is a craft that is easy for both children and adults to get started on. You can easily make small shapes and figures with needle felting as it is easy to control the shape. As you become more advanced in the craft, you will be able to make the most beautiful detailed figures.

Get started with needle felting

For needle felting you will need:

•        Foam rubber sheet
•        Wool roving in different shades
•        Felting needles
•        Possibly a holder for your felting needles

Needle felting is rather easy and it does not require any other tools than the ones mentioned above. You are then ready to start felting.

Carded Wool - single

Carded Wool Assorted Kits

1. Get your tools ready

Get out your different shades of wool roving and your different felt needles, so you have everything at hand. Place the wool roving on your foam rubber sheet or a similar type of material that the needle can poke into without being damaged.

2. Poke with the needle to make the wool felt

Now, the felting begins. You use a special type of felting needle that gathers the fibres in the wool. You felt by sticking directly into the wool roving on the foam sheet with your felting needle. This will cause the fibres to clump together, allowing the wool to felt. Therefore, you need to poke around the same spots if you want to build up the felt.

The wool roving will be very loose in the beginning, but as the wool starts to felt, it will become firmer and firmer and start to form more of a shape.

If you want to make a three-dimensional figure, you can shape the wool roving with your fingers and poke it from all angles until you have created your desired shape.

3. Add the small details

Once you have your foundation shape, you can then start making details such as faces or patterns. You take a little wool roving in your desired colour and use the needle to dot again exactly where you want to felt the new colour in the figure.

You can also felt small parts, which you subsequently felt onto your figure. It may be easier to make small pieces individually and eventually assemble them into a finished figure if you want to make details in several different shades.

Tips for finished figures

When you have finished felting your figure or desired motif, you can then decorate it further with beads or embroider with needle and thread. Only your imagination sets the limit!