Any felting experts around?

[TheWoollybacksWife]

I bought a few bits to have a go at felting. I've got some wool roving and I thought I'd have a go at making some Christmas tree decorations using polystyrene balls.

Do I need to needle felt it all or can I wrap the ball in roving and wet felt the base colour on? Then will it be ok to needle felt any decoration on top of the wet felted base?

I've seen a YouTube video showing the balls tied into the legs of a pair of tights and then washed and dried. Has anyone tried this?

You can wet felt the bottom layer on, and then needle felt on top of that.

I haven't tried felting in the washing machine, but I have put wet roving onto a beach ball, covered that with tights, and then rubbed/felted it by hand, to make a felt vessel. It is a fun process.

Thank you SDTG. That was exactly what I wanted to know. The prospect of having to needle felt the base was filling me with dread . I'll do one as an experiment and if it works I can do all the rest and then concentrate my creative efforts on the decoration.