The Tiny Owls: Needle Felting Tutorial

Hey guys,

As promised, here's a needle felting tutorial to make a small flower. It's very basic, hopefully it will help you get started!

First, you'll need a needle. The more points you have, the quicker the felt bonds together, but for small details you'll need less points. My needle has 3 points, and I can take them out if I need less.

Mat

Have a look on Etsy or eBay or at your local craft store and see what you can find :)

Needle

While you're at it, you may want to purchase a mat as well. This can help you to avoid your fingers while working (very useful!).

I'm going to be using felt for this, but you can use wool fibre if that's what you have. I have green for the leaves, blue for the petals, and yellow for the centre.

Leaf layer

First, cut out a green back for your flower. Mine is pointed like leaves.

Petal layers

Next, cut out several layers of petals. Make each layer slightly smaller than the last. Cut small slits on either side of each petal (be careful not to cut the petal off!). This is to make the petals 3D.

You also need a small round centre. It's easier to judge the size if you leave this until last, so you can see how big it needs to be to fill the hole you have. Read on and this will make sense :)

Take your first petal layer. Overlap two of the petals slightly and felt them together. This is done by repeatedly sticking the needle through both layers of felt. Yes, it does take a bit of time, but be patient.

Small slits in the petal layer

Overlap the petals slightly

When you think you've done it enough pull it off the mat (you shouldn't be able to see where one piece of felt ends and the other begins). Be careful taking it off the mat as it's possible to rip the felt - as you stick the needle through some bits of felt get stuck to the mat. Just hold as much of the petal layer as you can and pull away carefully and all should be fine.

It should become 3D

Continue felting the petals together until you have joined all of them and your first petal layer is 3D.

Finished overlapping the petals

Next, place the leaf layer on the mat and position the petal layer over it. Make sure it's where you want it to be, because it's really hard to move once you've felted it on! Stick your needle through the middle of the flower - just join the very bottom of the petal layer to the leaves.

Felting the first layer onto the leaves

The underside should look like this

Repeat the overlapping of the petals on the next two layers, and add them to your flower in the same way as your first layer. It might get harder to push your needle through as you get more layers, just push harder. Be very careful, getting the needle through your finger hurts!! Also, make sure that you always move the needle up and down, not sideways, because it can snap very easily.

1st layer

2nd layer

3rd layer

Once you have all three layers and the leaves felted together, you're almost done! Cut out your centre (you can see how big the hole is you need to fill now).

Centre

This is the most fiddly bit. I attached my centre using just one needle, and only joined it around the edge. It's protected down in there so it should be ok. You need to stick the needle through more times if you're only using one.