Peanut and I made felt yesterday. I had heard about zip-lock bag felting with children from a friend of mine and searched, in vain, for a tutorial. So, I decided to create one for others who may be interested in giving this a try. Needle-felting is tricky for little fingers, but this wet felting method is fun and easy.
First, gather materials. One sandwhich sized zip-lock bag, wool roving and warm soapy water.
Next, lay out the design.
Once you are happy with the design, insert it carefully into the zip-lock bag. Next pour in enough warm soapy water to completely saturate the wool.
Once the wool is wet, lay the bag flat on an absorbant towel and starting from the bottom of the bag, press with your hand flat moving it towards the top of the bag squeezing out most of the excess water.
Now is the fun part. Seal the bag at the top and start working the wool. Poking it and pounding it with little fists until the wool becomes firm and felt like.
After the wool has felted, remove from the bag and gently rinse in water, alternating hot then cold. Roll the felt in a towel to squeeze out any excess water, and lay flat to dry. Here are our three felt squares.
While the felt dried Peanut finger painted some gift wrap.
Once the felt was dry, we made gifts...just in time for Mother's Day.
We left one piece as it was and simply framed it. Peanut has been spending alot of time with my mom in her garden and has been tracking the growth of her peonies. So when I asked what he wanted to make for Grandma, he knew right away...Peonies.
With the second piece of felt, I made a needlebook. Two "buttons" cut from scraps of the felt wrapped with string makes a nice closure. I stitched craft felt inside to hold the needles.
The third piece I cut up and made a brooch.
Here they are...all wrapped up.
