Needle felting help

[Walkingbkwrm]

Any crafters out there. DH has got me a needle felting kit for Christmas. I did ask for a starter kit for a craft I haven’t tried before, so that’s fab. However it came with extremely limited instructions and no basic starter projects. There’s a lot of different needles and small bits of kit!

Can anyone answer a few questions like when do you need more than one needle at a time? How do you join 2 bits together (say a bird shape with a wing shape on top)? How do you work out how much material per shape to start with? (the instructions say “a suitable amount” which is no help at all!).

Any help please as it does look fun and I don’t want to get frustrated tomorrow giving it a go and put myself off!

It'll shrink a little when you felt it so you really need to start with slightly more than it should finish up, but you can add more just by felting more onto it. You can join pieces just by stabbing through both bits. I tended to use multiple needles for bigger bits and single for details.

Ok, so more needles are basically to save time/ do it quicker? Good to know you can add extra stuff after you start, that’s reassuring. With the adding thing - do you do the second shape separately first and then needle the two together, or felt the second from scratch on top of the first? Did that make sense?

Thanks for the tips.

If you're joining two pieces, jab both of them (not technical term!) into shape but leave the joining sides fluffy, so you can then mesh them together more easily. You do get a feel for it after one or two tries, but as long as you use quantities that are in proportion to each other you should be OK.

More than one needle felts faster. You can buy handles that fit more needles.

To attach parts, only loosely felt the edge to attach, then hold it where you want it and stab through the layers.

Be prepared for your wrist to ache at first.

It's great fun & addictive 😊

YouTube is your friend, loads of videos on there. Search for needlefelting for beginners. Have fun

I will try and have a go tomorrow! Thanks.