Easy Felting

Babies are the best, and the only thing better than one baby, is three! This October brings three new nephews/nieces into our lives. My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby and the first grandchild in our family, and two of my gorgeous sisters in law are due in October too. We also have the huge honour of being godparents which makes it all too exciting for words! So, in anticipation of their arrival, I have been a busy bee making some crafty gifts and thought I would share a little tutorial. Not having a sewing machine with me in Canada can be somewhat limiting, but I have managed to find some sewing free ideas that are relatively easy! Inspired by this post over on Honestly WTF, which has some amazing DIY's, I wanted to give felting a go so came up with these cute little onesies!

For the felting basics you will need:

• Something to felt onto (I used a cotton onesie)
• A cookie cutter in a shape and size you like
• A piece of felting foam (a kitchen sponge works just as well!)
• Un-spun wool
• A felting needle
• An Iron

Line up your cookie cutter in an orientation you like and mark any spaces with a pin or magic tape. I had 3 of the same cutter but if you would like a repeated design just be sure to lay it out and mark it first.

Slide your piece of foam or sponge underneath the area you will be felting. You only want there to be one layer of fabric between the wool and the foam. Take a piece of wool a little smaller than the size of your cookie cutter and start to gently pull it apart to make it more fibrous. You don't want to start with the wool too thick and chunky especially if you are felting onto clothing. You can always add more later if you think it is too thin. Stuff it into your cookie cutter and make sure you are happy with the placement. 

Now comes the fun part - start stabbing at the wool up and down repeatedly! Because the felting needle has tiny grooves it will push the wool through the fabric and make it grab between the fibres. Keep stabbing all over the area until it flattens right down.

This is where you want to pay close attention to the edges. To make it nice and crisp make sure you get the needle as close to the edge as possible and if you have any bald spots, add small amounts of wool at a time. You can take off the cookie cutter to check your design and put it back on as a guide if you need to add more or fix the shape. Gently pull the garment from the piece of foam - it will have all the wool fibres stuck into it. If the felting pulls from the fabric or changes shape slightly you can put the foam back underneath and stab it with the needle a little more. It shouldn't stick to the foam as much the second time if you are only adding a small amount.

Once you have finished felting, iron over top of your design with a low steam setting. Then you can start experimenting by adding top stitching or buttons.  This would be a great way to personalise blankets, cushion covers and any other fabric you like. Have fun and get creative!

M x