january 12, 2012

hello there! i thought i would do a quick tutorial on how to make felt balls.

 i saw this beautiful garland here and thought i would make one for harper's room. i've been really tempted to buy these, but decided to try and make my own to save some money. I discovered that it is really easy once you get the hang of it and if you have older(ish) kids they can get in on the fun too.

you will need the following:
bowl of warm soapy water (i used dawn dish soap)


1. gather a variety of colors of wool roving. you can have as many colors as you want, depending on the project you have in mind.


2. i used approximately 1/4 ounce per ball to make quarter sized balls, or a small handful.


3. reserve a very small amount for patching at the end. roll the rest of the roving into a tight ball.


4. saturate your roving in warm soapy water, then roll it from hand to hand for about five minutes. when you first begin, it will be a mess and will not at all resemble a ball. don't give up! it will work out, just keep rolling. once you have rolled your ball into the size you like, rinse the soap off with cool water and allow it to dry.


5. ta-da!


6. oops! the first few (or 5) balls that i made and threw away looked like this. this can be fixed!


7. place the extra roving that you saved at the beginning over your crack and roll away!

i hope you will give it a try! here are a few more ideas of what to do with felt balls.

3 comments:

  1. we got addicted to rolling these last autumn.

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  2. Oh i love this. I was thinking of making a felt ball garland to have along some shelves, but I didn't want to buy. I think I will try this, thanks. And thank you for you kind comments over on the blog. Lou xxx

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  3. Very cool! I never knew it was so easy!

    http://jimpricute.blogspot.com/

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