Dry felting captivates you so much that you want to create again and again. Check out the intricacies of this needlework and a step-by-step master class with step-by-step photos. Dry felting is also called felting or felting. This technique was used in ancient times to create hats, clothes, and carpets. Now craftswomen make jewelry, household items, toys from wool.
Felting needles and auxiliary tools
If you decide to tackle this interesting needlework, you will need special tools. You can buy them at craft stores. First of all, these are needles.
Unlike ordinary sewing machines, these do not have an eyelet, and the opposite sharp end is blunt and bent upwards. The longest needle for felting does not exceed 13 cm. Each needle has its own number and is intended for a certain type of felting.
So, with the help of needles No. 32 – No. 36, initial work is performed. They help to shape the piece of wool, but after such a tool, large punctures remain on the product. The needle number 38 will help to remove them and compact the workpiece. It is also used to finish the product. To polish the decoration, a toy made using the technique of dry felting, a more elegant needle number 40 is used. It will help to finally decorate the product.
Felting needles can be of different sections:
- triangular;
- crown;
- reverse;
- star-shaped.
Triangular felting needles are most suitable for beginners. These can be used for both the initial and final shaping of the product, its grinding and finishing. Only for each type of work it is necessary to use tools of a different section.
Star-shaped needles are used for polishing toys and decorations. If you need to attach decorative elements to the main product without deforming them, then they work with a crown needle. If it is necessary for the product to have several shades, then needles are used for felting a reverse section. This shape helps to get a bunch of wool from an already formed blank - from the inner parts of the base.
When you start to dry felted toys, you will need a thick foam sponge, a brush or a special mat for this type of needlework. These soft helpers are needed in order not to break the needle, since if you put the workpiece on a hard surface, stick a game into it, then the tip of that can break. And if you hold the product in your hand and act in this way, you can get hurt by an injection.
In addition to some of these soft materials, you can purchase a special needle holder, which is made of wood or plastic and has several holes for felting needles. Thanks to him, the needlework process is accelerated at times, and it is convenient to work with such a tool.
Dry felting of wool is carried out as follows:
- Take a ball of wool of the right size, put it on a brush, mat or sponge.
- The needle makes many piercing movements so that it pierces deeply, grabs the fibers and pulls them out. This is done until the workpiece acquires the desired shape and density.
- Further, other felting needles are used to weld the parts of the product.
- Finally, finishing work is being carried out.
The subtleties of wool and how to achieve the desired shades when felting?
In order to make toys, felt boots, using the felting technique, they use sheep's wool. It is relatively inexpensive. But the wool of New Zealand and Australian merino is more expensive.
If you come across felting wool that says "bleaching", use it as a light shade of the product or base, which you will cover on top with fibers of a different or different shade. But if you want to paint the whitewash at home, you can do it. It will be enough to buy a dye for wool and follow the instructions.
If you need a filler for a toy, on top of which you will roll fibers of the desired color, then get a sliver. It is unpainted wool and is the cheapest.
Fleece can be purchased for stuffing toys. If you come across such a material, it consists of short hairs that remain after combing the wool.
If the stock of the desired shade is not commercially available, do it yourself. To do this, you need to mix wool of two or more colors. If you want to do this at the very beginning of work, then tear off a lump from the wool of the desired color, lightly roll it with a needle. Then wrap a few strands of wool in a different shade and use a reverse needle. With the help of it, you will get out the fibers of the wool that are inside, and slightly fluff the top layer.
In the process, you can put on top of the fibers of wool of other colors to get the desired shades. If, for example, you want to make a tiger, then to create its stripes, weld the fibers of black wool to the yellow base, rolling them parallel to each other.
DIY doll making
Once you've learned which felting needles, wool, auxiliary tools to use, it's time to put the theory into practice! Felting will help you create soft toys.
If this is your first job, felting from wool for beginners is best done by making a simple but spectacular doll, for example, this one.
Its basis is a wire frame. Thanks to him, it will be possible to bend her arms and legs and give the desired position. For work, prepare:
- chenille wire 22 cm long;
- wool;
- sponge or brush;
- needles for felting: triangular section No. 38 and No. 40, star-shaped No. 40.
From a piece of wire, make 2 segments - 14 and 8 cm. Bend the first one in half - you have a right and left leg. Take a second, smaller piece, bend it slightly in half, and slide one half over the middle of the first piece of wire. Raise the smaller one up, twist both sides of it (this will be the body), but not completely. Separate the right and left branches - these are the doll's arms. Give your arms and legs the desired position by bending the wire at the elbows and knees.
We begin to add volume to the toy. Wrap strands of light wool around the frame and roll them with a needle. In place of the body, hands, wool should go a little more. Now tear off a ball of the same light wool, turn it with a needle into a rather tight ball, but leave the bottom part of it as it was at the beginning. This strand will become the neck, roll it to the upper torso. If this neck piece is undersized, add some more wool and thicken it with a felting needle.
Now it's time to dress up this ballerina doll. Place the pink wool fibers on top of her torso with a # 40 needle. For the skirt, place the wool strands from top to bottom, roll them around the waist. Then trim the hem with scissors. It remains to make a hairdo, shoes, and rejoice, looking at what a beautiful doll the felting technique and your skillful hands helped to create.
Felting a monster from wool master class
Further, a detailed description with step-by-step photos will be presented. They will help you make a toy with your own hands. Then you will be able to come up with and develop sketches of fabulous, cartoon characters, animals, animals, people yourself and make them using the dry felting technique.
You will get such an interesting toy, of course, it may differ in color and size. Here is what is suggested to be used for needlework:
- non-spun wool of the main and auxiliary colors;
- felting needles numbered: 36, 38, 40;
- sponge or foam rubber;
- for tinting - pastel crayons and a brush;
- paper;
- two beads for the eyes;
- colour pencils.
This is what the felting of a monster toy consists of:
Draw a sketch of the future product on paper in order to determine what it consists of, since usually the parts are rolled separately and then connected. Here, the torso and the head are a single whole, and the arms, legs and decorative elements are made and rolled separately.
Tear off a ball from the main wool, separate it with your hands in different directions, so that a fluffy homogeneous mass is formed from the fibers.
The ball of wool should be much larger than the final piece, since during felting it will become several times smaller. Take a thick needle number 36, begin to filter wool with it to first form it into a round ball, at the same time making the workpiece quite dense, without voids. Then use your fingers to shape it into a pear-shaped shape so that the thickening is at the bottom.
If you need to add a little wool, use a thick needle to weld it on.
Take a No. 38 needle, puncture the surface of the monster's body into an even shape, sanding it with this tool.
We continue to study with an example how step-by-step felting is done. Now we have to make the legs of the toy. For the first, also tear off a piece of wool. Give it a "sausage" shape with your hands, and make it wider at the bottom, since there will be palms or feet. Now shape the workpiece first with a thick one and then with a thinner needle.
It's time to mark the fingers of the toy with a thin needle. Work them out using a thin cruciform needle. In the same way, arrange the toes on the remaining second pair of feet.
Then make the 2 remaining legs
As you can see, from the side opposite to the fingers, we are not yet rolling the fur. Such fluffy is needed in order to connect them to the body. Place each foot in its place, weld to the body with a thick needle, straightening the fibers well, then sand the surface with a thin one. If the junction of the parts is too visible, it did not work out neatly, this is fixable. Place some wool in here, weld it in with a # 36 needle, and then sew over that section with a # 38 needle.
Now we start to create the facial features of the toy. Take 2 small white pieces of wool, felle each loose lump with a # 36 needle, then attach these proteins to your face using a # 38 needle.
In the same way, attach green balls of wool to these proteins, glue a bead to them - these will be the pupils.
Make an original hairstyle from colored wool, attach it to your head with a needle or glue. In the latter case, you need to immediately do everything as planned. After all, then this section will no longer be possible to work out with a needle.
The mouth can be embroidered with black thread, and you can also draw shades of the face with crayons to make it even more interesting. You can crush them and apply with a brush or use colored pencils. Felting toys is a creative process, decorate them as you like and enjoy the results!
Such hand-made souvenirs can be presented to friends, or you can make a pleasant hobby a source of additional income. After all, few people work in this technique yet. To make you love felting even more, the video of creating toys will help you. Watch the stories and choose the product that you want to create right now!
How to make a northern bear using the dry felting technique, see this video:
