Minnie the Minx and I are complete beginners at felting, but we found it amazingly easy.
And such hands-on fun!
We were lucky to have a kit to get started with.
Felting with Kids – For Beginners
In the felting kit, we found:
* a lovely bundle of fluffy colourful wool for felting
* some mesh
* some bubblewrap
* some soap.
I added to that:
* an old towel laid flat
* cup of tea
* And a small daughter, of course.
Lay the background wool out first. You need to put one layer down and then another at right angles, and then a third. We pulled the wool into short lengths first and then laid it down.
Then Minnie decided to lay on a rainbow pattern as our decoration.
Then lay the mesh on top, sprinkle with water and rub in some soap.
Then rub in circles with your hands.
And keep rubbing and rubbing. This feels great on your hands, lovely.
Then the felt needs to be ‘fulled.”
Roll it up in a towel and roll it about as if it was a rolling pin. Open it up and roll it the other way and do it again. The felt will shrink.
Then rinse the soap out, use some vinegar to help with this.
And hang it out to dry.
Admire your handiwork!
This is by no means perfect, but it looks so vibrant and we had great fun doing it!
Then choose what colours you’ll use for your next felting efforts!
I’m lucky that my elder sister in Scotland, Mairi, is a felter and she had sent me a getting-started pack. It has taken me far too long to use it, silly me!
If you are interested in having a go, just Google ‘felting supplies’ and you’ll find lots of companies who can sell all you need to get started.
Now excuse us whilst we dash off to felt some more.
Have you ever made felt?
Which colours would you choose?
