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Learn Basic Needle Felting

Needle felting (dry felting) uses one or more barbed felting needles to create flat felt or felt sculptures. The first use of hand felting needles was in the early 1980s by David & Eleanor Stanwood. They used needles from a woolen mill to create felted objects on a small scale, needle felting by hand. Needle felting has recently gained popularity among crafters, doll makers, bear artists, and fiber artists.

The basic technique of needle felting is very easy and can be used in many ways.

1  Gather Your Materials

Thick foam pad

Felting needle(s)

Wool roving

Material to use as a base (wool works best)

Design or template

2 Prepare a Base

Choose a base for your felting. It can be a piece of wool, a wool purse, a felted sweater or bag, or even a durable linen fabric.

Base material should be washed and dried before you begin felting.

3 Transfer a Design

You can free-hand felt a design directly onto your base. If you are more comfortable working with a drawn design, choose a design and then trace the outside of the design onto paper using a fabric transfer pen. Allow ink to dry, and then lay your design face down on your base fabric and iron following the directions for the transfer pen.

4 Felt the Design

Caution: Be sure to keep your fingers well away from the needle as you work. Felting needles are very sharp and can easily cause a puncture injury.

Position your base fabric over the foam pad. Pull off a few thin wisps of roving and lay it on the widest part of your design. Begin poking the wool with your needle along the perimeter of the design. You do not need to use a lot of force, just poke repeatedly using an up and down motion holding the needle fairly upright.

Needle along the perimeter of the design area first, and then go back to pick up the wispy edges with your needle and fold them in toward the center of the area and felt them into the design. Try not to bend the needle as you poke; it can break if you bend it too forcefully.

Every so often, peel your base off the foam pad. All that poking will cause the fibers on the back of the base fabric to embed in the foam. You will not pull the roving off, so don't worry. Just pick it up, reposition it, and begin felting again.

Continue to add roving of the desired color(s) to fill the each area of the design until you have the density or fullness you like. To create a roundness, felt the area with layers of roving to build up a layer base, and then poke into the layer from the sides, working all the way around the area. The fibers will continue to compress and entangle with one another, adding a hardness and fullness.

When your felting is completed, there should be no bare areas of base fabric showing through your design.

Now just continue to experiment and have fun with it.