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felted wool flowers

11:31 am - 01/19/2005
I just made my first felted flowers, made by hand with wool roving and felting needles. They came out all chubby and a lot nicer looking than I expected. I'll turn these babies into jacket pins, corsages, hair clips and whatnot.



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trillian241 19th-Jan-2005 07:33 pm (UTC)
cute!! I love how chubby they are!!
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 07:36 pm (UTC)
Thanks, I love that they're all puffy too. They're pretty tough too. =)
theolive 19th-Jan-2005 07:34 pm (UTC)
Those are beautiful!
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 07:37 pm (UTC)
Thanks! =) I'm gonna try making tiered ones with more than 5 petals soon.
dabblersupreme 19th-Jan-2005 07:37 pm (UTC)
those are gorgeous! i've been meaning to try my hand at dry/needle felting. where did you get the needle(s)?
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 07:43 pm (UTC)
I bought them on-line at websites that sell wool roving and yarn, many of which are sheep ranches too. Here are some:

http://www.outbackfibers.com
http://www.northeastfiberarts.com
http://www.mielkesfarm.com

I used these instructions and figured out how to make felted flowers, using the standard size 38 needle: http://www.mielkesfarm.com/ladybug_dir.htm

Watch out for the needles, they're really sharp. I've already stabbed myself more than a few times. You should buy a special foam pad to put it underneath, but I didn't have one. I just used a bunch of folded Kleenex lotion tissues. =P

Have fun! =) It's addictive...
renai 19th-Jan-2005 07:58 pm (UTC)
Okay, completely off topic... but my last name is Mielke and I've only once ever heard of another family with that last name. Oooh weird.

By the way... those flowers are AMAZING. I want to squish them!
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 08:01 pm (UTC)
They're squishy in a comforting wool way, plus they won't unravel at all so you can squish em as hard as you want. =)
dabblersupreme 19th-Jan-2005 08:20 pm (UTC)
thanks for all those links. i see needles are quite affordable, so i think i'll be starting in sooner rather than later. i'd heard needles felting could be time-consuming, so i'm glad you mentioned how long they took you below.

as far as the needle size goes ... did you use more than one size, or the same size for all 3 flowers? do you think having one with a handle would be much better than one without (i'm not sure which kind you used).
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 08:47 pm (UTC)
You're welcome! To answer your questions, I used one standard 38 needle to sculpt each flower out of the wool roving. I bought 3 38 needles because I read that felting needles break easily. I haven't tried the other sizes. And I didn't use one with a handle-- I just looked on-line at the ones with handles and they look like they kept your hand too far from the wool to do anything precise. But it all depends on what you want to do. If you're making something bigger than felt flowers then I assume that's when you use wooden handles or multiple needles attached together to cover a larger surface area.

Hope this helps and definitely post what you make! =)
sarahrae 19th-Jan-2005 07:50 pm (UTC)
ok so youre right, it DOES look MEGA-addicting.

side note, those are about the cutest things all day! Thanks for sharing!!!
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 07:52 pm (UTC)
Thanks for the compliment! =) They're also pretty time consuming, my first one (the salmon one) took a whole hour to make, but it's fun to stab wool so I didn't mind. =D
sarahrae 19th-Jan-2005 08:03 pm (UTC)
any craft that involves stabbing is a winner in my book!
sumobabe 19th-Jan-2005 07:51 pm (UTC)
They remind me of spritz cookies. Very cute!
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 08:49 pm (UTC)
Thanks! =)
astrea 19th-Jan-2005 08:23 pm (UTC)
Those are SO CUTE. They make me want to learn that craft, and I would, if I didn't already have too many unfinished projects and surplus supplies lying around. I'd better get crackin' so I can move onto felt flowers.
leslieduckie I feel you! — 19th-Jan-2005 08:52 pm (UTC)
Yeah I suffer from unfinished crafts-itis too. I keep an idea book with pics, websites and doodles so I can remember when I wanted to make something in the first place. Sometimes even then I still won't get to it for a long while. =P Do a show and tell if/when you get to making felted flowers. =)
astrea Re: I feel you! — 20th-Jan-2005 08:19 pm (UTC)
The idea book is a really good idea. I should definitely try that, thanks. I know I have some blank journals buried in my craft supplies somewhere....
I was thinking that I probably wouldn't get to the felted flowers for a long time, but then someone had to go and post the link to that $5 kit (below), so maybe it'll be sooner than I thought :-)
Thanks for the inspiration!
oicio 19th-Jan-2005 09:49 pm (UTC)
They are so sweet! Thanks for sharing the useful infos.
leslieduckie 20th-Jan-2005 12:06 am (UTC)
Thanks and you're welcome!
bjorkdoll 19th-Jan-2005 10:57 pm (UTC)
yay needlefelting!! i ended up buying an expensive kit when i first started, but later figured out that i could have just bought the needles & roving individually from another yarn/spinning shop. d'oh!

your flowers are megacute.
leslieduckie 19th-Jan-2005 11:57 pm (UTC)
Oh I bought a wetfelting kit myself, for $15, but now that I know how much wool roving costs, I know I paid too much for a bamboo mat, less than 4 oz of wool and felting instructions. =P Oh well, we both have experience in felting now, so it's all good. =)
ohsexgod 20th-Jan-2005 12:47 am (UTC)
http://www.alpacas4sale.com/html/felting_supplies.html

$5 beginner's felting flower kit!
campfires 20th-Jan-2005 03:18 am (UTC)
oh snap, awesome searching skills!
ohsexgod 25th-Mar-2005 11:54 pm (UTC)
the link has been changed to:
http://www.alpacas4sale.com/felting-supplies.php
rawtoast 20th-Jan-2005 01:01 am (UTC)
those are so cute! the remind me of the flower shaped bit in trix cereal... sorry that was kinda random
abinitio 20th-Jan-2005 07:32 am (UTC)
i want to do this so bad!
twiggygrl 20th-Jan-2005 08:21 pm (UTC)
hey,

i just found this community... ive never seen anything like that, how do you do it? is there a pattern or tutorial? are they knitted? what are they made of? please help! i would be most grateful.
leslieduckie 20th-Jan-2005 08:27 pm (UTC)
Hi there, you should check out comments above for additional info and instructions. No they're not knitted. You'll need to buy wool roving (they come in all sorts of colors) and felting needles, at the links I've posted in above comments. You can use the link to the tutorial in the above comments to see how to use a felting needle to tangle and sculpt the wool. I use merino wool. Have fun!
twiggygrl 21st-Jan-2005 03:55 am (UTC)
thanks so much for the help! im really excited to try this!
balamuthia 21st-Jan-2005 04:09 am (UTC)


Very cute, the colors are nice and cheerful. I've been thinking about getting into felting, but sheepswool makes me soooOOooo itchy.

I added this to the memories since it has some good, tested links for getting supplies. Could you leave the pics up? ^_^
leslieduckie 21st-Jan-2005 06:09 am (UTC)
Even merino wool is itchy for you? I think you could try felting other types of animal fur, dunno what's the softest though. These chubby accessories aren't gonna touch your skin so you could try making just small felted wool things.

Also, that's great you added this post to the memories, I'm happy that what I've learned can help other crafty folks out. I'll leave the pics up! =)
balamuthia 21st-Jan-2005 08:02 am (UTC)

I dunno about merino wool, I've had a pea coat and a wool cap that both itched like crazy (the cap even broke my forehead out) so I think it's probably an allergy.

It sucks because felting looks like so much fun!

^_^
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