Skip to main content

Felted Balls : Tutorial for Beginners

Felted balls like these are really easy to make - a great project for beginners...   It all started when my mother sent me a cutting from an old magazine about felting balls.

 I read the instructions and this seemed very simple - so simple that I could do it while babysitting. I thought it would be a good afternoon activity and felting lesson for my one year old granddaughter who was suffering from a cold on Monday and was tired of playing with toys! I got her interest by putting the sticky tape and two bottle tops on her little plastic table ... and so the process began.
Step1 :  Making the rattle for inside the ball  - take two bottle tops and put some little stones inside one and tape the other on top. Check that the tape is secure.


Step 2: Gathering wool supplies - you will need some wool for the core of the ball ( wool roving, pieces of an old woollen garment or blanket.), some wool roving for the outside of the ball and some novelty yarns, silk threads, or feature yarns to add some interest.  
Step 3: Making the core of the ball - wrap some wool around the bottle top rattle, trying to make a fairly  basic spherical shape. Wrap some wool  yarn around this core to keep it all together and to maintain the basic shape.

Step 4: Outer layer of the ball - cover the core with wool roving and  wind a contrasting or novelty yarn ( natural fibres are best) around the roving to hold it in place.


Step 5: Preparing the ball for felting - put the "ball" into the toe of of a nylon stocking - take care not to to push any of the wool or fibres out of place and thus change the shape too much. Tie a knot to secure the ball in the stocking . Check the knot will not come undone. ( My assistant  felter found this step the most fun, as you can also bounce the ball on the ground whilst holding the end of the stocking. )

Step 6: Wet felting- Add the ball in the stocking to a bowl of hot soapy water  - warning, for children, you need to supply their own bowl of lukewarm water. When the ball is saturated, begin to roll the ball in your hands, causing  the friction needed for the wool fibres to felt. This usually take approximately 5 minutes.

Step 7: Remove the ball from the stocking, and continue to roll the ball in your hands to shape. Rinse thoroughly to remove all soapy water and  roll again in a towel to remove excess moisture. Allow to dry naturally. This can take a few days depending on the weather.
I will probably add some surface embroidery, but this ball makes a great sound when shaken, and is a safe toy for toddlers, as well as quite a decorative item.

I did say at the beginning of this post that this was an easy project - now you can see, simple enough for even a one year old!

Comments

  1. I love this tutorial! Your 'assistant' seems exceptionally interested in the whole process. She is obviously learning a lot when she is at your place :) I'll have to try and make some of these for the kids!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the wonderful tutorial. Your granddaughter (assistant) is just adorable. What a cutie.
    I will have to try making a ball for my granddaughter who just turned 9 months old.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This Tutorial is so cute!!What a darling granddaughter.It is hard to keep an ill youngster happy, but you did it, and made a lovely toy as well. I wonder if my cat might like one.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Christmas Countdown 25... Christmas Tree #1

Background : It has become a bit of a Christmas tradition for me to write an Advent blog - a series of posts leading into Christmas from 1 December . In the past,  I have featured Christmas characters by the alphabet, all you ever needed to know about Christmas cakes, Christmas Firsts  and  Christmas traditions.  I usually find myself on 30 November, thinking what  to do this year?  However, I've had  the idea of "crazy " Christmas trees in the back of my mind since last year.  So this year, it's about non- traditional, unusual, crazy, weird  Christmas trees.   There will also be a "handmade" element to my posts, so there may even be some links to tutorials or other ideas....  So here we go. Christmas Countdown 25 - 1 December.  Source : https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/455285843573622091 This is the image which started this line of thought....  a yarn bombed, crochet granny square Christmas tree.  I though...

Christmas Countdown 4: Turducken

I had always thought that 'turducken' was a very modern dish  - a deboned chicken inside a deboned duck, inside a deboned turkey.  The birds are stuffed inside the gastric cavities and spaces are filled with poultry stuffing. There appear to be a few different earlier versions of this dish . I n his 1807 Almanach des Gourmands, gastronomist Grimod de La Reynière presents his rôti sans pareil ("roast without equal")—a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan bunting and a garden warbler—although he states that, since similar roasts were produced by ancient Romans, the rôti sans pareil was not entirely novel. The final bird is very small but large enough to just hold an olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. Gooducken is a goose stuffe...