Needle felting tutorial

Posted under Toy-making TIPS & TUTORIALS on 2011-01-01 00:00:33

…how to needle-felt a Baby Goblin Face

This step-by-step tutorial has been created by Jennifer, ‘Dragon Charmer’ to show how to do the needle-felted faces for her gorgeous creatures.

If you are new to needle felting, like me, this is great because you can actually see how to make these cute little cheeky faces…

Here we go…

Begin by deciding where you want you eyes to go. I put pins in so you could see the placement. You might want to draw circles with an air erasable marker. Take a small amount of white roving and fold it into a ball.

Next, with a single needle, felt the outside of your shape. After you are pleased with the size and shape of both eyes, use a multi-needle tool to get the white of the eye relatively flat. I like the Clover tool because the needles are grouped tightly.

Now add your eye color in the same way you added the whites, felting the edges first. Now the pupil. I like to use dark brown Yak down, as it doesn’t have guard hairs that stick up.

For the highlight you need a very small amount of white roving. Needle felt first one edge, and then the other. Do not push in the middle of your highlight or it will disappear.

For Goblin fangs, take a small amount and fold it into a ball like before. With a single needle, felt the edges of the fang into a triangular shape. Repeat for the second fang!

Okay, you may be asking yourselves, what about the eyebrows??! Simply felt a bit of roving in a nice little arch above the eye. I like to use camel down, it is a nice, not too intrusive color, and again, has no

guard hairs that stick up. If you want eye lids, start again with a small folded up ball. Felt the inside corner of the eye, then the outside corner. Then felt the lid just above the eye, and then the top part, shaping it in a half-circle.

Voila! Your cute Goblin Baby face is done!

Now to add hair!

I like to use tibetan lamb as it moves more like real hair, but you can also use yarn, roving, curly roving, etc.
Start by placing a line of tack glue on the head from ear to middle of the back of the head.

Cut a bit of the tibetan lamb off the skin and place the ends in the glue, like so. Needle felt the ends into the glue. When your needle gets sticky, wipe it on a wet washcloth. When you’ve finished covering the first line of glue, add the second from the middle of the back of the head to behind the other ear.
Repeat the process with the locks of hair and needle felting. You just repeat the glue/ needle felt process until the head is covered. Leaving the front part till last.