How to make - Needle Felted Hearts

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, so why not make your loved one a needle felted heart, perfect to hang somewhere special in your home!

What you'll need...

•  Wool roving/tops - available here from World of Wool
• Heart shaped cutter
• Small Needle Felted Foam Pad- available here from World of Wool
• Felting needle - available here from World of Wool and take advantage of 10% off this month!
• Needle holder - available here from World of Wool and take advantage of 10% off this month!
• Small sharp scissors
• Red ribbon

What to do:

1. Break off a piece of wool about three times the size of the cookie cutter.
2. Set the cookie cutter on the felted foam pad.
3. Starting at the centre top of the heart shape, line the heart cookie cutter with wool.
4. Prod the wool until it is all inside the cookie cutter.
5. When the wool is inside the cookie cutter, use your needle to gently and evenly poke at the wool. Hold the cookie cutter with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand and needle felt with your right hand. You will see that the wool becomes compacted the more you poke at it. Poke evenly, giving particular attention to the outline of the heart.
6. As you poke close to the outline of the cookie cutter, make sure you move your fingers to the other side so that if your needle jumps outside the mold, you do not poke your fingers. Try to poke with even controlled strokes. You do not need to lift the needle very high, especially when working around the outside of your woolly heart.
7. Once the wool has become nicely compacted inside the heart cookie cutter, gently pry your heart from the foam board, making sure it remains inside the heart cookie cutter.
8. Flip the cookie cutter over so that you can now work on the underside of your heart, needle felting it just as before until it too becomes nicely compacted and smooth.
9. Again, pay particular attention to the outside shape of your heart, the more you can needle felt it inside the cookie cutter, the better your wool will hold it's heart shape once we take it out of the heart mold.
10. When you feel that your wool heart is well felted, gently slip it out from the cookie cutter mold. You might need to neaten up the edges by needle felting your heart some more.
11. If you want to add a loop of ribbon to hang your heart, use a pair of small, sharp scissors to make a small hole in the top of your heart.
12. Tie a knot in the ribbon to make a loop.
13. Use the blunt edge of your felting needle to poke the ribbon knot into the hole. Then, needle felt the hole shut so that your ribbon is firmly felted into the wool.

These would also look great as a stand-alone heart or hanging from your mantlepiece!

Source: The Magic Onions
Photo, with thanks to: The Magic Onions

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