How to Make Handmade Felt - Tips for Beginners

We often are asked various questions about feltmaking techniques so here are some of those questions answered and some 'tips' for those who’ve just started having a go at wet felt making and needle felting.  These are just some of the things we have learnt along the way, and we hope they are useful to you...

First, a couple of notes about wool tops (or roving).  Your wool should be stored and handled carefully.  To felt wool, bascially all that is required is moisture and agitation, so if your bag of wool becomes damp and is handled roughly, it will soon become matted and hard to use.

When pulling off a tuft of wool to use, keep your hands about six inches apart.  If you hold too close to the point where you want the fleece to part, it will prove very difficult.

Never cut the wool – a blunt edge is difficult to felt in.

Wet-felting tips

Colour & Texture
Rather than just using the dyed wool straight out of the packet, try combining two or three colours together.  Pull off one tuft of each colour then lay them one on top of the other.  Grasp the ends and gently pull apart.  Lay the two pieces one on top of the other and repeat until you get a mottled effect.  Stop before it goes muddy!

Try including fancy yarn, silk tops or scraps of material into the top layer of your felt (lay your inclusions on the top layer of wool before you start to felt it.)  Remember that manmade fibres will not felt – they have to be ‘trapped’ into the wool.  If the fabric scrap is open weave, the wool will trap it quite easily and if the fancy yarn has a fluffy look, again the wool will trap it easily – experiment to see what works.  Some materials will need a few wool fibres laid over them to trap them into place.

Try embellishing with some hand or machine embroidery.  When the felt is dry, place the wrong side onto a piece of calico then run some machine embroidery stitches over the right side – amazing what happens!  The texture of the felt combined with the stitching can be quite magical.

You could also try needle felting some detail or stitching on beads.  Let your imagination run...

Does your finished felt look a bit lumpy? 
Make several fine layers rather than a few thick ones.  Try working with cool water and do not reheat your work to hurry it along.  Manipulate it less with your hands and more by rolling.  This all helps to slow the fulling which results in a much smoother finish.

Is your wool sliding around and not felting?
Only have enough water to thoroughly wet the wool and get rid of any excess (you can use a sponge to mop it away or if the felt is beginning to hold together, you can roll it up and gently squeeze the water out).  The slippage can be caused by using too much soap.

How do you know when it’s felted?
Use the ‘pinch test’.  Pinch your thumb and index finger into your felt and if you can pull two layers apart, then it’s not felted yet – you need to roll it some more!

Do you have trouble getting rid of the soap suds?
Soap is useful for getting your wool to absorb water (have you noticed how water-repellent the wool is?) but use too much and the wool just slips around instead of felting and it’s really difficult to remove at the end.  You can use any soap, but soap made from unrefined olive oil with no artificial colours or perfumes, is low sud and makes felting easier.

Why do some colours of wool felt easier than others?
Sorry, this remains a mystery to us.  We have sometimes found reds and purples difficult to felt.  They will felt in the end, they sometimes just need a bit more patience and extra rolling.  Once your felt is holding its shape sometimes a dash of really hot water can help.

How can you replicate a piece of felt that turned out wonderfully?
It’s a good idea to make notes as you go, e.g. the colours of the wool used, how many layers, the size of the piece before felting and the size after (to determine shrinkage), what inclusions (fancy yarn or silk) you used etc.

Are you happy with the final shape?
When you have finished your piece of felt, especially if you are making a 3D piece, you can change it quite dramatically by literally hitting it into shape.  Use the bowl of a wooden spoon or your hands or a palette knife and whack it into shape.  If it’s a flat piece of felt, then you can carefully pull it into shape.  You can create frilly edges by pulling and teasing the felt.
The felt will keep whatever shape it dries in.

Needle felting tips

What’s the best way to learn to needle felt?
Really the best way is to just have a go!  As with wet felt making you will find what methods and techniques work best for you.  The basic principle is simple - by jabbing the barbed felting needle through your wool it gradually felts together by pulling fibres from below back up through the fibres on top.  You will be making simple patterns and beads in no time but to make more complex items will take a lot of practice and learning from experience.

Do I have to use a base material?
No, you can needle felt wool into any shape you want just by needling it on top of a dense foam pad or special needle felting brush or polystyrene pad.  Corsages could be made this way – or decorations to attach to handbags etc.
You would needle felt directly onto material if you wanted to decorate a jumper, scarf, cushion – the list is endless!
If you like to make wet felt, needle felting is a good way to decorate it.

How do I know which needle to use?
For tough work (perhaps needle felting onto a heavy, closely woven fabric) you need a thick needle and for fine detail you need a thinner needle. The lower the number of the needle the thicker it is.
Needles have small barbs that catch fibres to push/pull and entangle them.  They come in different shapes and sizes – triangular needles have fewer barbs than star needles.
For beginners, a 38 triangle is a good all-purpose needle to use and if you want a smoother finish, use a 40 triangle in the final stages.

How do I get a fine, delicate looking piece of needle felt?
Use a 40 triangle needle and work with fine, wispy layers of wool.
Don’t over felt – make it tight enough to hold but loose enough to be delicate.

Why do my needles keep breaking?
Felting needles can easily break – never bend your needle while felting.  Always poke the needle straight into the wool, and pull it straight out again at the same angle.
Always work on a dense foam pad or special needle felting brush or polystyrene pad so that the needle has a soft landing! 

My piece of needle felt has gone too hard!
The more you work on an area of wool, the more the fibres become tangled and dense therefore making it hard.  When you are building up a pattern, try not to over felt the under-layers - just needle it enough to make it hold.

Is there an easy way to needlefelt shapes onto fabric?
A quick and easy way to do this is to felt inside a cookie cutter.  Put your cookie cutter on to your fabric and then gently push 2 or 3 layers of teased out wool top into the cookie cutter.  Now begin jabbing the needle around the inner edge of the cookie cutter and working inwards.  You should get a nice crisp shape.  This can work equally well with your own template cut from thick card.

How can I stop my felt sticking to the pad?
Every so often, carefully peel your needlefelt off the pad and needle the back a little before replacing on the pad.

I’ve made some petals to form a flower but I can’t needle felt them together!
When making pieces that will need joining together, always leave the area to be joined very loosely felted (or leave loose fibres hanging) so that the fibres get a chance to entangle at the join.

How can I make my needle felted flowers more attractive?
Sew a few seed beads onto them – not too many and the key is to try to be random with the placement of the beads.  Silk top inlaid into the felt also gives flowers a nice finish.

Comments

[Annie and Lyn]

Hello Missy,

How wet should the wool be?

It should be wet enough so that the soapy water has penetrated all the wool fibres. When you have wetted the fibres through the net, and soaped and rubbed for a minute, get a small sponge and gently push it onto the wool (through the net) in a straight down and then straight up movement so that you don't disturb the fibres.

If you can squeeze a lot of water from the sponge then the fibres are overwet. Go all over the fibres, through the net, until you can't squeeze much out of the sponge.
After you've done a couple of practice pieces you will start to get an intuitive feel for this.

What point do you add layers?

Most felters make all the layers before wetting down.
There are exceptions of course, depending on your project, but to start with, make 3 small sample pieces, one with 4 layers, one with 6 layers and one with 8 layers. Do this just to get a feel for it and to note the difference and to help you estimate how many layers you will want for your project.
Make each sample fully - the felt will thicken and firm up as it fulls.

We know how daunting it can seem to start with, but it's easier than it looks and the only way to learn is by doing it. It's surprising how quickly you will get to feel just what is right. Don't worry about making perfect stuff to start with, just have fun and learn about felt.

[Missy]

Hi, I'm wondering about layering: When is it suitable to add layers? You mentioned many thin layers as opposed to a few thick layers, but at what point do you add on these layers? How wet should the wool be?

P.S. fantastic website, one of your craftgawker posts actually pushed me over the edge and got me to buy some wool and start felting! Thanks!

[karyn Loo]

I discovered a wonderful and easy to achieve simple felt item such as a felt flower when I joined a felt-flower makingclass!! Since then, I am now so enthusiatic with felt works! Your tips and explanations are very useful for me and I still have more to learn from you:-) ButI wonder where I can get the triangle needle??

karyn

[SnowDrop Rockies]

Getting my feet wet with tips and info before the supplies come in, So helpful thank you!

[Julie Petty]

What a beautiful blog...with lots of good felting help...so glad I found you!

[Miss Pips]

Thank you, Great information! I just had my first felting workshop and your additional notes will help me on my way.

[Glenis]

Thank you so much, I can't wait to get started with my Llama fleece from last years shearing.
Glenis

[katherine Cortés]

Esta información ha sido útil para mí.
Muchas gracias por compartir sus experiencias con nosotros.

[Jane Piggott-Custance]

What a very useful site many thanks to the author for taking the mystery out of hand felting

[Lizzie]

Thank you, a lot of very useful information!