Felted Flower Tuitorial

Today I'm going to show you how to make the felt flowers that you saw in my Oct. 16th blog.  Please go back and look at them, I did mine on a felting machine, but they are easy to make with just a few tools and some wool roving.
You will need:

• A large sponge that is covered in a fake lambskin or fleece (usually sold in the auto parts section of the store)  I got mine at the Dollar Tree a few years ago
• A felting needle.  These are available at most yarn shops, or if you live near me, I'll give you one
• Wool roving.  I used 2 shades of red, some orange and a tiny bit of dark purple
• Large black seed beads for sewing into the middle and using to attach the flower to a base

Step 1.  Pull the red fleece and arrange it in a circle (doesn't have to be perfect).   Keep it kind of thin, you can always add more fleece later if you think its too thin.

Step 2.  Begin to "punch" the roving with your needle, holding it as shown, but straight up and down.  Pick up the roving from time to time and turn it over.  Punch both sides until you get the degree of felting that feels right to you.  At this point, you can tilt the flower and punch the edges to make them turn up slightly.

Step 3:  After you have made the base (this will be about 4 inches in diameter), make a center layer and a top layer.  The top will have the dark felt in the center.  I used the orange wool on the edges of these smaller ones to accent the edge.

Last step.  Layer the three sections in a way that pleases you and punch the centers so that they are felted together.  You can then attach the flower to a garment, purse, or anything else by sewing it on with the beads in the center.  You may need to additional stitching through the bottom layer so that the stitches do not show.

I hope that you enjoy this technique.  I'd love to see pictures of any projects and will be happy to post them here.  I will be doing a class in this in March for my American Sewing Guild Neighborhood Group, Shore Can Sew.