What is felting and how to do it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The life hacker shares useful resources and tells you where to start.

What is felting

Felting is a technique for felting wool with needles, a felting machine, or soapy water.

This type of handicraft is suitable for everyone who wants to try themselves as a designer. It's very exciting: you will learn how to create toys, accessories and decor items. Crafts can be gifted to friends and even sold.

Alesya Kravchenko toy master

My friendship with felting did not start right away. At first I tried beading, decoupage, embroidery. But for a long time it did not fascinate me. Felting is another matter - I immediately realized that it was forever. I love wool for its warmth, pliability and magical ability to take any shape. It is simply impossible to wallow with sad thoughts in your head. You get to work - you immediately get a smile on your face and a good mood.

What is felting

There are two ways of felting: dry and wet. With the help of dry, voluminous toys are created. A piece of wool is shaped into the desired shape by hand, and then pierced with a special needle many times to fel.

Wet is more often used for flat products - panels, bags, clothes. A shape is manually formed from a ball of wool, laid on a flat surface and moistened with warm soapy water. Wool fibers fall together and form a web.

Alesya Kravchenko believes that dry felting can be practiced even in a park or cafe. It is enough to take material and tools with you. But with a wet one, this will not work, because you need to dilute the soap solution. And the mistake is more difficult to fix: if a hole has formed, you will have to attach a new soapy piece of wool. With the dry version, it is easier: you seem to be sculpting from plasticine, there is always an opportunity to quickly remove flaws with a needle.

What tools and materials are needed for felting

They can be bought in the arts and crafts departments or ordered from online stores.

Wool for felting

Dyed wool for felting is fine, semi-fine and coarse. Coarse or semi-fine is best; it will not tear in the process. But you should not take a thin one - it is easy to spoil it with a needle.

For the base of toys, cheap, unpainted, poor quality wool is often used - sliver.

Externally, the wool looks like carded wool or combed ribbon. Carded is already a tangled mass, it does not need to be prepared for work. The combed ribbon is a straightened material, it will have to be thoroughly mixed up before felting, otherwise the villi will not join together well.

If you are a beginner, take a cardo - it is easier to deal with it.

Sliver / ukrasa.rf

Special needles for felting

They have notches on which wool clings during the work. For different stages, several types of needles are needed:

• trihedral - the simplest, with three edges and notches on each. It is usually used at the beginning of felting;
• star ("star") - one face more than the previous one. It will come in handy at the final stage, as well as when you need to weld flat parts to the product;
• crown - on other tools, the notches are located along the entire length of the edges, and on it only at the end. This needle is used to roll the toy's hair and eyelashes;
• reverse - the notches are made in the opposite direction, which allows you to pull out the wool fibers;
• needle-fork - easily clings to the smallest details;
• twisted - twisted in a spiral, so it captures the material well. It is used at the end of the work, when the base is already felted.

The sizes of the instruments are written on the packages of the needles. They are divided into super thin (indicated by numbers 40–43), medium (36–38) and thick (19–34).

The product is always started to be felted with a thick needle, gradually thinner ones are taken. The final touches are performed with a very thin instrument, because it is difficult for thick ones to pierce matted wool.

Some craftsmen use a felting machine for dry felting, which helps to process the material faster. But you don't have to buy it. If you are a beginner and while planning to create toys only for yourself, it is quite possible to get by with needles.

Felting mat

It will protect you from needle pricks. Before piercing with a tool, the wool is placed on a substrate, and not held in hands. You can use a special felting brush or a regular household sponge.

Decorative elements

Beads, ribbons, braid, beads, rhinestones, buttons, lace - all this will decorate your toy and make it more original.

Additional tools

To decorate the toy, you need scissors, sewing pins, glue, felt-tip pens or pastel crayons, and a toothbrush.

Thimbles

They will save your fingers from being pricked during felting.

How to make your first felting toy

We suggest creating a fluffy dry felted chicken by hand, because this is a simple technique that will suit even beginners.

What do you need

• Yellow wool - 50–70 g;
• beige wool - 30 g;
• pink wool - 20 g;
• sliver - 50–70 g;
• thick, medium and thin triangular needles;
• thin or medium reverse needle;
• substrate;
• thimbles;
• scissors;
• Toothbrush;
• glue;
• ready-made glass or plastic eyes;
• two sewing pins;
• colored markers or pastel crayons and a paintbrush.

How to dump a toy

1. First make the torso. Take wool for the base of the toy - sliver. Tear it apart, place the pieces on top of each other, setting aside several pieces. Crumple the material with your hands, giving it a rounded shape.

2. Prepare a substrate on the table, put thimbles on your fingers. Take a thick or medium triangular needle. Stick it deeply into the wool at a right angle, using your hands to shape it into a ball. The notches on the tool will cling to the villi and entangle them together. Gradually, the coat will fade, becoming dense and resilient, but not too stiff.

3. Tear off some more material and wrap it around the lump, spreading it evenly on all sides. Continue piercing with a triangular needle, joining the new wool to the base. So the product will become dense again.

4. Now tear off a few pieces of natural yellow wool and wrap the slimer torso in it. Continue to join the materials with the triangular needle as you did before.

5. Tear off two pieces of sliver and three pieces of yellow wool. Crumple each one with your hands, forming drops. Put the yellow ones on top of the unpainted parts. Use a triangular needle to pierce the fabric while holding onto the backing with your fingers. So felle two small wings out of slimer and wool. Shape the feathers in the process. To do this, pull the edge of the wing upward so that the material stretches out and forms a rounded bend. Treat it with a needle. Then, in the same way, pull out the wool from the other edge and in the middle of the wing. It will look like a wave. The ponytail is done in the same way, but without a slider.

6. Tear off several pieces of beige wool and pierce it with a triangular needle many times, creating a triangle. Then shape the curves as you would for the wings. Take exactly the same amount of material and make a second foot. A little more beige wool will be needed for the beak. Use your hands to mold a cone or triangle, then pierce it until it is tight. Using the same principle, felle a small flat semicircular comb, with or without curves, from pink wool, as desired.

7. Take another slider and felle two small flat rounds. Pierce them with a triangular needle, holding it with your hand on the backing. These are blanks for the chick's eyes.

8. Take a reverse needle and stick it shallowly into the lump. This will make the chicken's body fluffy.

9. Attach a piece of sliver to the yellow body - this is the plumage. Attach the scallop on top with a narrow part, base. Pierce the fabric with a medium or fine triangular needle, joining all three pieces.

10. Just below the scallop, place two round blanks side by side. To prevent them from slipping, secure them to the body with sewing pins. Now dump the eyes with the body with a medium or thin triangular needle, piercing the round and the base. When the parts are connected, pull out the pins. Secure the beak under the eyes with your hand and weld in the same way.

11. Attach the wings on the sides of the body with sewing pins, white side up. Pierce the details with a thin triangular needle, connecting to the base of the toy. In the same way, weld the legs from the bottom of the body, and from the back - the tail.

12. Examine the toy. If somewhere the wool sticks out unevenly, trim with scissors and smooth with a toothbrush. The chicken should be fluffy, but not shaggy.

13. Form small indentations in the eyes with a thin triangular needle - orbit. Then glue the finished plastic or glass eyes.

14. Using pastel crayons using a brush or felt-tip pens, apply the finishing touches - webbing on the legs, eyelashes, feathers on the wings and mouth.

The video will help you better understand how to move the needle and roll the wool correctly.

What other options are there

Toy kitten in dry felting technique.

Standing fox in dry technique.

Wool flowers in dry felting technique.

How to try wet felting technique

First you need to learn how to properly lay out the wool.

And this video contains detailed instructions on how to create the first toy using the wet felting technique, for example, a poppy.

Useful Felting Resources

Websites and forums:

• - a forum of craftswomen felting wool products. Here you can ask for advice, exchange experiences, watch and discuss other people's topics.
• - in the "Felting" section there are several detailed lessons with photos and videos.
• - master classes and useful articles about felting.
• - several tutorials, articles about felting materials and tools.
• - here you can learn to roll clothes and accessories.

YouTube channels:

• - author's step-by-step lessons on felting wool toys.
• - in the playlists "Felting toys" and "Painting with wool" you can watch the master classes of the school of felting.
• - on his channel, the felting master shares the secrets and techniques of wet and dry felting.
• - a channel with detailed author's lessons on felting.

Communities and Blogs:

• - the "VKontakte" group, where you can see the ideas of handicrafts, share your developments and chat with the participants.
• - The owner of the Instagram blog teaches felting, talks about personal experiences and reveals the secrets of felting to beginners.