Getting Started

You need to know how to make felt to make this project, but you don't have to use wool roving and special tools to make the felt, which can be time consuming. Instead, you can use your washer and dryer as felting power tools, which allows you to make felt fabric in a fraction of the time hand-felting requires, and with a lot less effort.

Not all items knitted of the same type of yarn will shrink and felt exactly the same way. When selecting a sweater to felt, start with one that’s much larger than you want the final piece of fabric to be. It’s possible that a loosely knit sweater that goes to your knees could end up toddler-size.

Needle felting is a great way to embellish fast felted items. To do it, you use a specially designed needle to incorporate wool fiber, called wool roving, into the fabric.

Place a foam pad under your project to protect your work surface and the delicate felting needle. Use a piece of foam that’s at least 3" (7.6 cm) deep for added security. Place the felted wool fabric to be embellished on the foam pad. Lay the wool roving across the fabric. Jab the felting needle down through the roving and fabric repeatedly until the roving is sufficiently incorporated into the base fabric.

Unsweetened powdered drink mix is an easy-to-use and inexpensive way to dye small pieces of felted fabrics. Best of all, this nontoxic option gives fabulous color that’s surprisingly colorfast. If you wish to dye more felted fabric, such as an entire sweater, you might need 10 or more packets. Hint: any brand will work, especially if it contains vitamin C—the ascorbic acid enables the felt to take the dye.