Here is an art project that has gone awry! The reason? I used a different kind of resin this time. This heart was supposed to be on a platter for a wall hanging like an earlier project I posted. However, the resin I used shrank when it dried and did not adhere to the platter. Luckily it looks good in front of this window with the sunlight shinning through.
Well, here we go! Finally!
The first thing you need to do is gather your supplies. You will need to pick out the right kind of yarn or you will run into some problems trying to felt it together. Choose a yarn that is loose, fluffy and made mostly of wool. For the felting steps you will need to have at least one felting needle. I suggest having multiple needles in a needle felting tool. Also, these needles tend to be a tad fragile and you might break a few if you felt too roughly so have some backups. You will also need a felting pad or a stiff piece of foam for a needle felting surface.
1) Cut three lengths of yarn all the same size. I suggest they be at least your arm span. Loosely tie all three strands together. I tie my knots in the center of the strands. This is because it makes it easier to felt the loose ends together.
1a) Now loosely braid the strands together. Braiding them loosely makes it easier to needle felt.
Repeat the above steps a few times.
Tip: The longer and tighter you want your scarf to be depends on how many braids you make. Don’t worry though, if you find you want to add more later it is easily done.
2) Now it is time to begin needle felting. Start felting one end of a braid by placing it on a felting pad and stabbing it with the felting needles. Use short, straight, deft strokes and be careful not to bang the tip of the needle into anything hard like the bottom of your mat. Do this for the entire length of the braid and then turn the braid over and repeat. Doing both sides helps keep the yarn strands together tighter. The side opposite the felting needle becomes fuzzier and looser so it is a good idea to turn it over and felt there to make sure everything is tangled up nicely.
Repeat the above step for all of your braids.
3) This is an optional step. I was unsatisfied with the way my needle felted braids were holding together so I took the time to wet felt them together. I filled the sink with hot water and added some dish detergent. I then dunked my braids in the water and rolled them between my palms until the loose fibers on them were very matted together. When I was satisfied I rinsed the soap out with cold water and hung the braids to dry.
Tip: I wear gloves while wet felting because the soap and the felt dry out my hands. If your skin is sensitive I suggest you do the same.
4) This is when you decide the shape and length of your scarf. Lay out your braids flat on a table. Arrange them over each other so that they meet at intersections and create loops. Needle felt wherever the braids intersect. Make sure to needle felt both sides of the intersection as well. It is crucial that you needle felt these tightly or else your scarf will fall apart.
Tip: Test every intersection by tugging on it, if there is a lot of resistance from the felt it is a good sign that you have done it right.
Tip: To make my intersections extra secure, I needle felted on some extra wool roving to each side. That’s where the light blue on my scarf comes from. Not only does it add a bit of flair, it makes it stronger!
5) After needle felting all the intersections wet felt your entire scarf to reduce the fuzz from the needles and to make sure everything was well matted. To wet felt the whole scarf I filled the sink with hot water and added some dish detergent. I wetted the scarf with the water and rubbed and rolled the entire thing between my hands. When I was satisfied that the entire piece was well matted I rinsed out all the soap with cold water and laid my scarf out flat to dry.
Tip: Instead of wet felting your scarf by hand you can also put it through the washing machine on a hot wash and cold rinse cycle.
6) When your scarf has dried it is time to add decoration. You may sew on buttons, beads, add accents with colored thread, etc.
Tip: If you choose to sew on beads make sure they are sewed on as securely as possible. I suggest sewing on each bead individually and giving it its own knot.
Have fun and have patience!
If you make a scarf from this tutorial, or another piece inspired by it, I would love to see pictures! Thank you!
I announced over a week ago that I would be making a tutorial on how to make a Doodle scarf. I have finally gotten myself moving and the tutorial will be all set to air this weekend at the latest! Here are the materials you will need to create one of your own:
I made this heart pocket using the wet felting technique wrapped around patterns. I made the patterns from some card stock covered in plastic wrap. I am pretty happy with the way it came out. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I think it might work nicely on a Steampunk style coat.
This picture is of the back of the heart showing the small pocket on the back.
Here is the first piece I felted. It is the base of the heart and the pocket. I am wet felting it with warm water and dish soap. I agitate the wool fibers with bubble wrap because the texture of the bubble wrap allows the wool to tangle well and the soapy warm water can move under it between the bubbles.
After I felted the base I made patterns for the superior vena cava, aorta and pulmunary artery from some card stock.
Here they are after being felted. I cut the molds out of them and then refelted them closed to get rid of the messy ends.
~I needle felted the brown defining lines onto the heart when I was unsatisfied with the definition of all the parts after they were needle felted and then wet felted together. After adding the brown I wet felted it yet again just to make sure everything would hold together strong.
This evening I spent about two hours trying to felt soap. As you can see from the picture the results were mixed. I seemed to get a hang of it by the last two, but I couldn’t continue because I ran out of felt. As soon as I have more I will keep practicing! I’m thinking about making some small pouches and wallets as well as lots of fancy soap.
Any tips would be very welcome!
This here is another felting piece I’m working on. It has been much more of a failure then I expected. The “doodle scarf” was quite the ego boost because it happened so smoothly. This one, however, did not felt together correctly and has holes and had bits falling off that I had to sew back on. I think that it didn’t felt together correctly because I tried to use wool that wasn’t the right texture for wet felting. I intend to use this as a shawl like thing in a gypsy costume and I making. Hopefully sewing some beads and other decorations on it will help hold it together.
This “doodle scarf” (as my sweetheart so aptly named it), is not specifically Steampunk in style on its own. However, I think that if it is used to compliment a clearly Steampunk outfit it will work quite nicely. The process I used to make this was very easy. I took some very loose yarn and cut it into long lengths. I then braided it together and repeatedly stabbed it into submission with a felting needle. I followed those steps repeatedly and pieced this scarf together from a bunch of different braids. To get the braids to attach themselves to other braids I simply placed the end of one braid onto another and used the felting needle to mesh them to each other. I plan on making more of these scarves, so a real tutorial complete with pictures will probably make an appearance within a fortnight. I tried to give myself a realistic time frame there, lets hope I can stick to it!
Recently I have begun to experiment with felting. So far I think it is a medium I could really get into. I don’t tend to see much felted Steampunk clothing and I think it is very underused. The mixed colors and textures that are produced from felting are very unique and nothing else looks quite like it.
So far I’ve learned from felting that stabbing your fingers with felting needles hurts quite a bloody bit, putting your hand in boiling water is not a good idea, and as soon as your hands are covered in soap the cat will start to do very bad things.
Ventricles Apart Crafts 