Needle felted Angels Tutorial

I know there are a lot of tutorials on how to make these needle-felted angels, and I am sure I learnt from a tutorial on Twig & Toadstool's blog a few years ago, but I cannot find it. So here is one. I hope it is simple and straightforward enough. These angels are not complicated to make and do not take long to make once you have mastered the basics.

You will need some felting needles, and a pad to work on. You can either use a sponge pad (car wash sponges work well) or a special brush pad which you can find at specialty craft shops.

You will also need wool roving, which is carded, unspun wool. Sheeps wool is best to use - goat or merino is too fine to use and doesn't needlefelt well.

Pull off (don't cut!) a length of wool roving. The pen is there to give you an indication of size. The longer the wool, the bigger the angel/fairy will be. Pull off a smaller length of roving for the arms.  

Tie an overhand knot in the middle of the longer length of wool roving... the knot becomes the head of your angel.

Take the smaller piece of roving and roll into a sausage like length between your palms. Press hard and rub rapidly back and forth to create a sausage shape. This is the start of the felting process. 

Then place the arms on your mat, and stab with your felting needle, using an up-and-down motion. Go up and down the arms, and turn the arms over as you go - remember you are felting a 3D object. As you felt, fibres will be pulled through to the other side, and it can become a bit 'fluffy' with fibres sticking out. Roll it firmly between your hands again and this will felt the loose fibres back into the arms. 

Take your roving with the overhand knot in the middle. Open it up and slide the arms underneath the knot, so the remaining wool hangs down either side of the arms. 

Take a very thin strand of wool roving and twist it slightly. Begin wrapping the thin strand around the base of the overhand knot to create a head shape. You don't need to tie it off - just wrap it around and it will stay. Wool is very strong. You might like to stab it slightly with a felting needle to hold it in place.

Then take another thin strand of roving to wrap around the waist and over the arms. This will secure the arms to the angel. 

To do this, find the middle of the length of the strand, hold it against the angel's back with your thumb/finger and wrap it once around the waist. Work with one side of the strand at a time. Bring it diagonally from the waist up to the opposite shoulder, and back down the other side on a diagonal. Do a half-wrap around the waist and bring it up on a diagonal to the other shoulder, and back down to the waist. Keep repeating until you reach the end of the strand; then repeat with the other end of the strand. You do not need to tie it off.

If you want to, you can wrap a little bit of roving around the 'wrist' to create a hand shape. I used to do this but I don't any more. I find it easier just to roll the arms into a sausage shape.

This is the base of your angel. 

To dress your angel, lay the angel onto your mat.

Pull off a length of wool roving in the colour of your choice. 

Fold the wool roving in half and place onto your angel. You can do this a number of ways:

1 - Place the fold over your angel's shoulder, so that it covers the front and back; and stab into place;

OR

2 - Place the fold underneath the neck of the angel, so that you are just doing the front; and then do the same on the back;

OR

3- Place the fold on her waist so that you are creating the skirt, and use a different colour for her top.

Once you have stabbed the top into place, you can lightly stab the roving onto the skirt. You might like to add a second colour onto her skirt. Play around with ideas and colours. 

When you have done her top and skirt, it is time for her hair.

Choose some roving for your angel's hair, and pull of a suitable length. 

Place the head in the middle of the length of hair, and begin stabbing into place.

To add flowers to her hair, take a small length of roving, and wrap around your little finger. Pull off and put into place on her hair. Stab into place. Get a tiny piece of another colour and roll into a little ball. Place in the middle of the flower and stab into place.

 This angel has flowers spiralling around her head.

The flowers on her dress were done in the same way as described above. I lightly felted some green roving together, and stabbed the flowers into place on the green roving.

Then I attached the 'field of flowers' to her dress. 

 This angel has plaited hair, tied off with silver thread.

Play around with embellishments: different types of yarn, embroidery thread, Angelina, ribbons feathers. There are no right or wrongs - just have fun and try out ideas.

 To attach embellishments such as feathers, ribbons or beaded strings as above, I wrap wool roving around it (as you can see in the above photo) and stab the roving into place. This secures your embellishments. You could try sewing them into place, too. 

These flowers were done the same way as detailed above - wrap a small strand of coloured roving around your little finger, pull off and stab into place. I attached the flowers to the lavender coloured roving before putting it onto the angel. Then I wrapped a thin ribbon around her waist and tied it off at the back.

My 100 Days Project so far... 100 Days Project: Angels for Babies (100 Days Project website link)

Blog post: angels for babies - my 100 Days project.

Matchbox Babies

I used to love matchbox babies as a child. It was always exciting to be given a special little treat, and to push open the box to see what was inside. I liked that he was snuggled up in a cosy little bed, and I loved anything little. So when I was looking at my craft matchboxes that I had picked up from the Dollar store, I thought Matchbox Babies!

The craft matchboxes are slightly smaller than real matchboxes, and a bit less sturdier. You can use either, or both. To decorate the matchboxes, you will need:

Matchboxes

Decorative paper

Ruler

Craft knife

Craft glue - PVA is perfect. 

Measure your matchboxes (both the outside cover and the inside tray) and transfer your measurements to your paper. Cut using a craft knife and ruler.

Fold the paper around your matchbox and make sharp creases along the folds. 

Apply glue to your paper. I used a bit of thick card to spread the glue evenly and thinly across the paper.

Wrap the paper around the matchbox.

Cut a piece of felt and glue down to the base of the matchbox inner tray.

Cut a square of felt for the blanket to keep your baby nice and cosy!

Wooden Peg People

There are lots of tutorials on making these wooden peg people, and I am constantly inspired by the gnomes created over on Wee Folk Art's blog. They are amazing - go and visit them and check out their gorgeous gnome houses and all the other wonderful things they make.

What is wonderful about these gnomes, is you use pre-made wooden bases, and with a few felt scraps, and a little bit of haberdashery, you can make each one unique and different. These gnomes above were made with plain felt, but I added a bit of glitter glue to embellish them when they were complete.

These gnomes represent the four seasons... Spring (blossoms); Summer (strawberries); Autumn; Winter. I used embroidery thread and sequins for Spring; embroidery thread for Summer; tiny leaves cut out of felt for Autumn; ribbon and embroidery thread for winter.

The backs of the four seasons

If you want to embellish your gnomes, do it all before sewing the felt onto the gnome.

Some people glue the felt onto the peg dolls, but I prefer to stitch. I don't like the feel of felt when it has been glued. 

I don't really measure my felt properly... I just lay the peg doll onto the felt to see how high to cut it, and roll it around the base to see how long to cut it. Then I use that piece of felt as a template for cutting out more bases. 

The cape is done pretty much the same way. I cut a small rectangle, making sure it fits around the neck of the peg doll. To shape it, I fold the felt in half lengthwise so that when I cut it into a cape, it is the same on both sides.

Embellish the body before sewing it onto the peg doll.

Stitch the body onto the peg doll starting from the bottom, and go up to the top.

When you reach the top, do a running stitching around the neck. 

Pull the thread tight, to gather in the felt around the neckline.

Secure the thread with a few stitches.

Pull the thread down through the inside of the felt to the bottom, and snip with scissors to hide the thread.

If you want to embellish the cape, do so before attaching to the peg doll. 

Place the cape on the peg doll, making sure that the the seam of the body is at the back. The cape will hide most of the stitching.  

Secure the front of the cape with a few stitches.

For the hat, cut a triangle to fit around the head, and sew two sides together to create a cone. It took me a few goes to make a hat that fit. 

Glue the hat onto the head, making sure the seam on the hat lines up with the seam on the body at the back.

These gnomes are perfect for using in Small World Play, and you can adapt them to whatever scene you wish to create. I love setting up small world play areas and scenes to promote children's imagination, oral language, and collaborative play. Play is such a an important way that children learn. Imaginative play, dramatic or role play, and small world play, enables children to process their own ideas, their knowledge and experiences, and what they have seen and heard, to make sense of their world.

Click on the link for more of my teaching resources