Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Learning to Needle Felt a Simple Shape: Part One

For the orange flowers on either side of Belleza's earrings, I wanted to pair bugle beads with a needle felted center.   Beads are very sparkly so to both calm them down and to highlight the sparkle, I will use needle felted wool centers among the flower petals.  But first I have to learn how to needle felt.

To do so, I went shopping for needle felting supplies at the big box craft stores in my area.  I discovered that in my area Michael's and Hobby Lobby carry the same brands of felting supplies so I bought a needle felting kit at the place it was on sale and bought wool roving at the other place where I had a coupon and their selection of roving colors was better.  Here's what I came home with--

Needle Felting Supplies
I bought 100% wool black felt, which is about double the thickness of felt you get at the fabric store.  I bought the needle felting tool set, which has two needles and a block of foam that you use as the base for felting so you don't put holes in your table.  I bought a package of two shades of brown wool roving (that's the wool batting you see).  I made a copy of my canvas and cut out the center of the flower so I had a paper pattern to use to make sure my two flower centers were the same size (that's the yellow dot laying under the polka dot leaf which I found on my front porch this morning).

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

7 comments:

Anne Bloom said...

I don't know how to felt either so I am looking forward to learning through you. It is a really cool looking technique, I think!

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

We'll learn together, shall we? It wasn't hard to make my "button" centers, just took time and patience. Sadly, we lack those two commodities in CH!

palma said...

Sooooo good to see you felting Jane. Can't wait to see the results. I am sure it will be awesome

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Can't wait to get your thoughts on it, Palma. You are far more experienced with needle felting than I am!

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

We'll see what I can figure out, Anne. Anyone with tips, please speak up!

Melinda said...

Jane, I am really looking forward to following your felting adventure. It is a technique I haven't tried yet but am anxious to jump in. Looking forward to your next post!

NCPat said...

You will do just fine.....careful of that needle!