Fall Needle Felting

If you are looking for a fun and easy craft, try needle felting.  It's quick, easy and requires little skill except poking a needle into wool about a bazillion times (no counting involved :-). 

 

Today I wanted to do a fall craft and found a needle felting kit that I had bought a while back, designed to make a (creepy looking) jack-o-lantern.  Discarding the directions, I got the materials and set off to make a regular ole pumpkin.



Here are the contents of the kit.  Not shown is a knee-high stocking that I thought got in there by mistake.  Turns out it was a vital part of the kit--it's just not in the photo.

 

Step 1:  Take the knee high stocking and fill it with fiberfill.  I wanted a big pumpkin so I used it all.  You can see where I tied it at the top then cut off the extra stocking.  The knot won't show at the end since the stem will cover it.

Step 2:  Shape the fiber-filled stocking into a roundish ball

Step 3:  Pull off some orange wool and loosely wrap around the ball.  With your felting needle, start stabbing the wool over and over.  This will make it adhere the orb.  Continue wrapping felt and needling until the ball is covered with orange.





Left: You can see what the orange felt ball looks like.   It doesn't take long at all to get to this point.

Step 4:   Continue using the needle to create the creases of the pumpkin.  To do this, just use the needle and create the line from the top o' the pumpkin to the bottom.  It doesn't have be perfect--no two pumpkins are alike.

 

Step 5:  Use other colors of the felt to create the stem and the leaves.  I used a piece of foam for backing, got a bit of green wool and started shaping the stem, turning it over every few minutes so it doesn't permanently adhere to the foam. 

After you have it looking like it should, put in on the top of the pumpkin and use the needle to attach it.  Google "basic needle felting" for tons of tutorials on the art of making needle felted shapes.

 

 

 Voila:  My new fall pumpkin!  Hopefully the squirrels won't get this one.

 

 A couple of warnings about this craft:

• The needle is sharp (!) and as you are gingerly needling the wool over and over, be careful not to get your fingers in the way.  This happened to me today.....and it hurt! 

• I would not suggest this craft for young children.

 



This is a photo of the kit that I used today  (http://www.backtobackalpaca.com).  They have lots of inexpensive kits to get started.   (See what I mean about the creepy jack-o-lantern?  I couldn't have slept with him in the house)

Let me know if you try needle felting!  Happy Crafting and Happy Fall!