Felt Ball How To

I've been so excited for the holidays this year. My husband won't let me decorate for Christmas yet, which is fine because I think Thanksgiving deserves to be celebrated too. But he hasn't stopped me from prepping my little heart out. One of the things I've been working on are these great felt balls.

I posted a picture on Instagram and had a few people ask me how to make them. So I thought I would throw up a little tutorial here on this blog. I'm sure there are better ones out there or even better ways to do it, but here is how I made them...

Supplies:
-wool roving
-hand soap
-warm water

Start with wool roving. I found mine at Hobby Lobby and Michaels but you can probably get them at any craft store. If you want more specific colors you can search online. There are tons of places that offer all sorts of different colors at very reasonable prices. This etsy listing would give you a fun rainbow to work with.

Pull off a piece of wool roving about as long as your hand and wad it into a ball.

Now get your ball wet with warm water and start rolling it like you would clay or play dough. Add a little hand soap and work up a good lather. The warm water and soap help the wool fibers to grab onto each other. Keep working your ball of wool- rolling it and rubbing the different parts of it together so it forms into a ball. Begin to rinse the soap away as it starts to form. I find it's best to do all this under a small steady stream of warm running water.

 Once the soap is rinsed away you should be left with a ball like this. It shouldn't look perfect yet but will probably have crevices and be slightly misshapen. Totally normal.

Now you grab another small piece of roving and wrap it around your ball. Make sure you cover up the cracks and crevices. It doesn't have to be perfect but try to make it shaped as closely to a ball as possible. Repeat the whole process. Get your ball wet and soapy and begin to roll it, again as you would a ball of play dough.

 Rinse the soap out while you roll it and once the soap is rinsed you should be left with a perfect little felt ball. If its not so perfect yet you can add more roving to cover the imperfections--wet, soap, rinse and repeat until you are happy with the size of your ball and how it looks.

Repeat the process again and again until you have a nice set of felt balls in the colors of your choosing. Let them sit out and dry- probably overnight- and then you can use them in whatever project you're doing. 

To make a garland:
I used embroidery floss and a big, thick needle. If you can't pull the needle through, grab a pair of pliers to help you out. You can space the felt balls out or have them close together. They kind of grab onto the floss so you don't really need to worry about them sliding around if you leave them spaced out. Hang and enjoy!

There are some other great felt ball projects you can do besides hanging a garland. And if you don't want to take the time to make your own, there are places you can buy already made felt balls- lots of shops on Etsy and my favorite, Hello Maypole.

Here are some of my favorite felt ball projects:

Wreath

Mobile

Hanging from a branch

But I really, really love this garland.

Happy felting!