Creating Fleece Curls for Needle felting

Have you seen the lovely curls you can buy and drooled over them - only to buy them and been a little disappointed by the quality



Or you have wanted locks to match a perfect colour for your needle felting project




That was me - until I found several methods to create my own curls using my own roving or tops in every single colour

 Here in my very first video on curls I showed my method that I found and have loved of winding a thin strand of tops around a kebab stick (or a chopstick if you want looser curls, and then tipping a kettle of boiling water over the fleece to 'shock' it into taking the shape

I then discovered how to make sure they work every single time by making sure to add a little twist as you wind your tops rather than making it totally flat like a ribbon

(this video is really worth watching)

And finally how do you use these curls? or how to quickly make some when you dont have time to create some and wait for them to dry? You can just use roving and felt it on 'curly' to make bobbles and lumps of a short curly coat (if you want flowing locks like a unicorn mane or a mermaid hair (am I giving you ideas for projects?) then you do need to create the locks first)

I hope these little tutorials help and inspire you with ideas for new projects - and save you money :) 

If you make anything with 'my' locks please share them with me #BenMcFuzzylugs or come over to 'Pam Duthies Felting Friends' on facebook 

Oh and I am asked often how long these curls last - I have had some for several years and have seen no signs of the curls dropping - they seem pretty permanent 

How to needle felt a Dog The short muzzle

In the third in my series teaching you how to needle felt a dogs head today we look at the brachycephalic dog
The Boston Terrier, the French Bulldog, any dog with these delightfully smooshy faces (although for all dog lovers it is worth being aware of the health problems that can occur with the dogs if we go to extreme with these features)

 Like all my small dog sculptures the head starts with a ball, If you dont know how to make a ball check out this video for details

 Then you want to create a small thin tube, Squish the ball to a slight oval shape and apply the tube towards the bottom of your oval











felt this nub firmly down to approx the length you want the muzzle to be

Now to make the jowls you need a 1-2 inch piece of fleece









Make sure the length is even each side and felt the middle of this ontop of the nub you made for the muzzle like a crazy moustache








fold the ends under to create the jowls

Pinch these bits between your fingers and carefully felt - adjusting the shape depending on the breed of the dog

At this stage you can add any shading to the muzzle

For the lower jaw pinch an inch or two of fleece between your fingers and carefully felt a U shape.

 Add shading if needed and keep measuring your lower jaw against the upper so you know if you need to adjust the shape. Poke extra into areas that need to be made smaller

Carefully felt the lower jaw into place.

Adding eyes, ears and any shading depending on the breed and you are done

for the full Boston terrier video check it out here 

Click on the image to check out some needle felting kits (affiliate link to amazon)

How to Needle Felt for Beginners, A Dog Armature

For my small sculptures I like to use a simple armature.
Two lengths of pipe cleaner, the length to be the front legs, along the body and down the back legs (twice obviously) I fold over the ends so there is no jaggy wire

The back legs are usually slightly longer than the front - but look at the breed
I then twist the centres together to make a H shape










Taking thin strips of core wool (I use the world of wool carded white corridale reviewed here ) I wrap that as evenly up the legs and over the body. On the body I wrap around the body side to side and top to bottom to make a nice fat shape








Then spend a good amount of time felting this smooth - moving in all directions, taking up to an hour to get it nice and smooth.
Then I felt back and forwards in straight lines at the tops of the leg to make creases to make bending the legs easier





Bend the legs over using the crease lines, and again felt all over till its firm. At this stage check front legs are the same length as each other and the back legs are the same length as each other - add a little fleece if needed







About a 1/3rd of the way up the back  leg (depending on the breed) again felt backwards and forwards in the same place to create a line









This line is the hock, bend the bottom of the leg forwards and felt to firm this bend, then curve the top of the leg back

Take around an inch of fibre for each side we want to felt a C shape starting behind the dogs bum then curving down infront of the thigh and ending just above the hock felt this fibre in place squeezing between your fingers as you felt to keep the 'muscle' thin when facing head on but nice and 'meaty' from the side




It should take over 1 hour to get a nice firm smooth dog body shape, keep felting all over the body and add small amounts of fleece if you need to smooth out any areas that need it

And you are done :) 

How to needle felt a dragon. Part one, the armature

Finally, you asked, here it is. Stage one of my needle felted Dragon tutorial

This stage I go into all the steps needed to create the armature for my needle felted dragon

For the supplies you need please click on the images, they will take you to my amazon affiliates page which supports my work at no cost to yourself

1.25mm thick galvanized wire






0.9mm thick galvanized wire




Florists stem tape





As always feel free to share any of your creations with me

How to needle felt. Needle felting Easter bunny tutorial

Todays needle felting tutorial video we have a fab project for beginners - the needle felted Easter bunny

This wee guy is so simple, just 2 basic shapes, takes about an hour or less and is super cute 

If you are a total beginner I would recommend checking out some of my basics videos before getting started 

An introduction to the equipment

How to felt a ball

Bunny ears

I have been asked a few times if I sell felting supplies - I dont - but click my affiliate link for Amazon below and it takes you to some people who do sell felting supplies and look pretty good :) 

How To Needle Felt. Easter Bunny Ears

Todays video

Its a bit of a dress up for easter
How to create a removable band with bunny ears on it to dress up your little felt sculptures

In this video I actually show three methods for forming the ears and two methods for colouring in the pink in the middle of the ear

I hope you enjoy - feel free to share any makes you create

How To Needle Felt Tiny Hands

Hands in art can be the most difficult thing - 5 fingers look so crowded it looks like you have sausages and not fingers
and in needle felting its even harder as the fingers are so very tiny you stab yourself or break needles on wires

This is my method for felting small hands from around 1cm to 1 inch with the least hassle

How to needle Felt, a miniature schnauzer full needle felting tutorial

Whew, I have finally done it
A full needle felting tutorial of this cute tiny miniature schnauzer

Felt along with me in this step by step needle felting tutorial - over one hour of free tutorial to help you create your own first project  Please feel free to share if you create a little dog of your own

Needle felting tutorials - The Reverse felting needle

In todays tutorial I talk about the reverse felting needle

This is a handy extra tool that can be used to drag one colour through another colour to create some interesting effects and to help with blending

First steps in needle felting

So back in the mists of time (2 years ago) I had the fantastic idea to create some beginner needle felting videos.

I filmed a few and even managed to edit some, like this introduction to needle felting

And this first exercise - felting a ball 

And then my computer decided it didnt want to talk to my video editing software.

Now - Two years later I finally have editing software I can use - so Im working through the videos I had already made (know whats worse than seeing yourself on film? Seeing yourself 2 years ago on film and not being able to change what you are saying!) 

Here is the first of the recorded ages ago new videos

I plan to continue uploading the remaining tutorial videos from the past and I have a load of new ideas for new videos (which I promise will have way better audio!!) So please feel free to like and share and subscribe either here or on my YouTube channel.

An introduction to needle felting

So to practise for a possible online TV show (nothing written in stone, dont get too excited) I decided to make a series of needle felting tutorials. Here is the first one, an introduction to the equipment needed to needle felt
I hope you all like it, if you are interested in trying felting I also included some links to some of the shops I use for my felting supplies

http://www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/
www.mohairbearmakingsupplies.co.uk
http://www.worldofwool.co.uk/
http://www.glasseyesonline.com/

and of course please have a look at my Etsy Shop if you are interested in your own felted sculpture or my bookmark tutorial

Needle felting - quick fix - Oh no! The ears are too big

 Every had a felting disaster? Actually the great thing about needle felting is you can save just about anything
Here is my quick fix for a common issue I have
My cat is almost done but I just dont like the ears, I have pretty much reached the limit of how much smaller I can felt them and for me they are just too big.

I could take them off and make new ones, I could cut them off and remove some from the bottom - but let me share with you a quick trick I discovered to shrink them and still retain the shape

 Carefully cut a V shape into the tip of each ear so the centre is now lower than the edges
(poor thing, he looks a little odd now!)

 Pinch the edges together and CAREFULLY (dont stab your fingers) felt the edges together

Occasionally if you have felted VERY firmly you might find you need to add a tiny bit of fluffed up fleece over the top to get the edges to bond but usually with ears I dont find I need this

Repeat for the other ear and hopefully your ears are now shrunk how you like them
















Of course you can always just buy yourself some ready made custom felt animals from my shop - check out my sale section for some amazing discounts!

New listing - PDF instructions!

As I know so many craft people want a try at needle felting I decided to make my own tutorial.

The 1/2 splat bookmarks are actually a great beginners project as they are built from basic shapes and a bookmark can be completed in around two hours.

This listing in my etsy shop is for a 14 page pdf file of step by step instructions and photographs to make one of my bookmarks.

This is something a little new for me :) hopefully it is something people are interested in. I shall also make up some kits at a later date

Needle felting, beagle, stage 10

Now the feet!!

Lots of people dont do feet but I like to add them.
Sometimes I just sculpt them on the leg but its a little easier to make each foot individually



Take a small strip of fleece and roll it fairly tightly into a ball

Carefully holding between finger and thumb felt all round to secure and begin to firm the ball




As you work one side looks a little flatter so flatten this out more by stabbing all along. Remember the fleece matts in in the direction of the needle so always stab in 90 degrees to where you want the surface to be (in this foto the needle is at the wrong angle - not easy to hold, stab and photograph)

Spend a good while stabbing all round so the foot is very firm and as smooth as possible

Repeat 3 more times so you have a little bunch of feet :D

They might not all be the exact same size. You could add more fleece to even them out. In this case I just used the two smallest for the front and the two biggest for the back