For those who are interested in needle felting but afraid to try, I always recommend them starting with cookie cutter felting technique. Cookie cutter can help beginners to solve the most difficult problems - shaping, in a very short time. Once we create a basic shape, we can easily add embellishment to create many fascinating felted goodies. In here I will take a cat cookie cutter as an example and demonstrate how to make a variety of wool felted kitties.
Needle felting doesn’t need a lot of tools, we only need a special felting needle, felting mat and some wool to start making something stunning. For this project, I suggest using a 38G needle, and a firm supported mat. For starter, check out “HOW TO PICK THE RIGHT NEEDLE FELTING MAT” to learn more about it.
Put some wool into the kitty cookie cutter, and repeatedly poke with a needle up and down to start felting. I want to make the kitty has some volume and curve, so I add more wool to the body area to make the body thicker, and keep the head and tail area thinner.
While repeatedly poking the wool, remember to flip side and poke evenly on both side to prevent wool ticking to the mat.
This Initial felting stage takes about 3-5 minutes.
When the wool almost felted and can hold the cookie cutter shape by it own, we can remove the cookie cutter. Then holding the needle in 45-degree angle from top down and poke from outside to inside along the edge, so that the cat has a three-dimensional shape. Also we can repeatedly poke the dividing lines between body-chest, chest-head, head-ears, let the cat shape become more obvious.
When the wool become tight and the kitty shape become clear, now we completed the felting process.
This step takes about 5-10 minutes.
Now it is time to show off your creativity. Pick your favorite color and embellish to the kitty. I picked some black wool, gently poked with a needle to the right ear and tail. If you have a 40G fine needle, it is recommended to use a fine needle to reduce pinholes in the surface at this time.
Of course I don’t mean the real diamond…. 😺
Once we have completed the basic kitty shape, we get hundreds of ways to decorate our cat. For example get some sparking sticker from your local craft store and stick it to your felted cat, or like me glue some sparkling acrylic jewels. Only take a minute, we get a dazzling kitty!!!
Or still have question!!?? Here is the video shows the whole process of making one of the felted kitty. Let get your needle felting tools and start to make a felted kitty together!!!
Love this idea. No I don’t feel so nervous about felting. Thank You!!!
Fantastic tutorial THANK YOU
Deb
March 23, 2017
Been waiting for this for some time well done
Thank you
Ps. Do you have any other animal shapes?
How do you do the eyes