If you’ve ever used a recycled sweater to create an item of clothing or accessory, you know that sometimes the color and pattern choices with these sweaters can be limited. The solids of most sweaters might not have enough spunk for the project you had in mind. Enter needle-felted embellishments. Needle felting is a simple technique where a barbed needle is used to blend the fibers of layers of wool together. In short, you can add something fun to that plain gray felted wool with this simple technique. For this project I added a flower to a pair of felted wool slippers that were looking a little bland. If you want to try this technique but don’t have a felted object for a base, wool felt, found at the fabric store, can be felted for a simple base. This project shows both the use of wool roving and scraps of felted wool felt in the embellishments.
Things you need:
Felting needles
Wool felt scraps
Wool roving
Felting Brush
Scrap wool yarn
Felted base (the slippers)
Scissors
Things to do:
1. Cut five 1 -inch diameter circles from felt scraps or roll five light, 1-inch balls of roving from the petal color of wool.
2. Place the felting brush onto the backside of the wool base. If you don’t have a brush, a thick layer of foam can be used as well.
3. Arrange the first ball where you want one petal to be on the base.
4. Using your needle, punch straight down through the embellishment wool and the base wool and into the brush or foam. Repeat this a few times to set the wool in place. Repeat this with the remaining petals until you have your flower shape.
5. Carefully punch the needles through the petals and base wool, working around the edges and through the center, until the wool is well blended. You should be able to see traces of the wool on the back side of your base.
6. Roll a ball or cut a circle from a contrasting color of roving or felt. Blend it into the center of the flower in the same manner in which you attached the petals. You can add scraps of wool yarn for more depth if desired.
7. Using a scrap of green wool yarn, blend the end of the yarn in between two petals and continue to use this same procedure to add a stem” to your flower.
