TUTORIAL: Needle Felting

So here it is, what you have all been waiting for...my tutorial on NEEDLE FELTING!

Supplies you will need are:

Needle Felting Needle (I used a #38; upolsterly foam or needle felting mat; wool or wool felt material; Big Shot, Bigz Die (I used the Butterfly).

Start off by layering your image on top of your background piece of wool and placing it on top of your foam or needle felting mat.

Start poking your needle through the top image and background layers.  You will continuously poke this needle through the two layers.  As you poke this special barbed needle into the material, the two layers will begin to grab on to each other (or felt together) and the fibers will intertwine - almost like your fingers locking together.  

NOTE:  Be VERY CAREFUL with the felting needle when using it.  You do NOT want to poke yourself with it.  The needle has little barbs at the end of it and if it goes into your finger, it really hurts when you pull it back out!!!  Trust me, you will only do this once!

 

 
If you look closely in this photo at the middle of the butterfly, you can see that the inside of the bottom wing has been "felted" or attached to the background fabric.  I am intentionally leaving the outside edges of the wings free and unfelted so the butterfly can look like it is flying.

I added the butterfly body, head and antenna by felting on some wool yarn to the background fabric.  You can see in this photo the needle felting that has been done to the inside of the bottom wings of the butterfly.  See the little needle pricks where it attachs to the background? 

 
 
This is what the back of your project looks like once you have felted your items together.  You can see here that I only felted the inside of the butterfly's body and the inside of the bottom wings.  I kept the other parts of the butterfly unattached.

 

This photo shows the unattached wings better.  If you look closely at the antenna, you can see how it is felted into the background material making it look like it is part of the material.

 

Here is another angle of the completed butterfly.  All that is left to do is to sew my second scallop circle background to my top layer, stuff it with fiberfill and finish sewing it up.

 
 
 Add some pins to your pincushion and it is complete!

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial.  Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think or to ask any questions you might have.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lynn Larson - www.learntostampandscrap.com

 

Comments

[Debbie Van Gieson]

Lynn, this is so cool! I don't know much about such things (I used to do Needlepoint and Cross Stitching-and that's the extent of what I do with needles!); but this is intriguing! I just might have to try this! :) Thanks for sharing,

[Ann Fitton]

Great tutorial Lynn!!

[Josie Goulett]

Nice to see that everything old is NEW again, thank for a great tutorial.

[Denise]

great tutorial, thanks so much for sharing this.

[Gwen Mangelson]

absolutely gorgeous!!!

[Sue Root]

Lynn,

I was directed here from your message to Late Night Stampers. This tutorial is very thorough. Thanks for sharing. I don't know much about fabric, so sorry if this is a silly question: can I use the craft felt that you buy in small rectangles for this? I thought I heard somewhere that it was a different kind of felt, but I don't really know.

Thanks, Sue Root
http://www.stampin-with-sue.blogspot.com/

[Diane J Ouellette]

Thanks for the tutorial! Didn't know such a needle existed...and it can do this. COOL.

[Judy]

Wowser - I really don't need another "project" but this is tooooooooo good to pass up

I have several people in mind for next year Christmas presents

thanks for sharing Lynn.....

Judy

[Loretta Jones]

Fabulous, thank you ! I guess I can sew by hand, lol.

[Peggy Maier]

Hmmm... I've always wanted to try felting. Your tutoral is great - makes me want to begin right away. Now to find some felting needles!