Felt is a fairly dense material that consists of synthetic fibers or felted wool. Usually it is produced in the form of panels having, depending on the purpose, various thicknesses. The undoubted advantages of this interesting material are the following: a wide range of colors, it is easy to stick or sew on, it has a different thickness of the sheet, not loose, and also it has no wrong side and front side.
For example, you can make toys from felt with your own hands, but not only them. It will also come in handy for creating frames for photographs; they can easily decorate the cover of their notebook, stitch various pleasant little things. In addition, bedspreads and pillows can even be decorated with this material. In particular, it will allow you to show your imagination in decorating children's rooms.
History of felt
Few know that felt is a very ancient material that was first found several centuries ago in Anatolia. Just this simple raw material in those days was the only one, therefore bags, bedding, clothes and even jewelry were made from it. Nowadays, it has regained its popularity, especially in European countries.
It is noteworthy that toys from felt were also made by our great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers, but today even children like them for whom this occupation often becomes a real hobby. According to experts, when working with him, the child gains reassurance and peace, learns to focus on the details.
Joint lesson unites!
If you work with your child, you will have more time to be alone and to communicate heart to heart. Also afterwards you will feel warmth and outgoing kindness from a jointly made toy from felt. How to make such souvenirs? There is nothing simpler - you only need felt and a soap solution (if we are talking about the wet felting technique). And ready-made souvenirs will be just a wonderful gift for any occasion.
What does this gift mean?
To present a felt toy means to present a piece of your warmth and tenderness to a person dear to you. You must admit that not one, even the most expensive Chinese doll or toy car will be able to convey all that positive that toys from felt can only radiate. Such a gift will become an amulet for a loved one, causing only a smile.
The range of crafts that you can make from this type of material will depend only on your abilities and imagination. These are all kinds of flowers, animals, dolls, trees, wonderful fairy-tale characters , etc. In addition, it has long been used for making jewelry: bracelets, hairpins, brooches, pendants, etc. In short, from it you can make everything you just want to, even designer toys from felt, most importantly, put all your love and kindness into the product!
Basic felting techniques
There are 2 of them - wet and dry felting. The choice of equipment must be made, given which product you want to get in the end. In some cases, mixed technique is used, which combines at the same time 2 of these. Let's look at one of them using an example of a master class for making a simple toy.
Penguin making
Useful for this:
1. Felting wool in three colors (white, yellow and blue).
2. 2 black beads with a diameter of 5-6 mm.
3. Different needles (thin, medium and thick).
4. Glue.
5. Needle for knitting wool fibers.
Phased production:
1. Take a piece of wool of the approximate size of the future toy. Roll it into a ball and start poking it with a thick needle. For shaping, be more zealous in places where you will have recesses.
2. Select the place where your penguin will stand, and make this side as flat as possible. So you get a finished base with a pimpled and not quite even surface. In order for the penguin to look attractive, you can align the base with a thin needle, as you did earlier.
3. Now you should identify the place where a little face will be a little later. Pull white wool to the finished base while simultaneously forming the front of the heart-shaped figure using thin and medium needles. Also add a piece of yellow penguin wool here. In order to make his eyes, at the top of the nose, form the middle needle 2 small holes where you put the beads. Glue them with glue. The muzzle is ready!
4. Now attach wings. Take 2 small blue pieces of wool of the same size. Dump them, creating 2 triangles with a thickness of no more than 3 mm. Leave the furry on one side of the figure. Now roll the wings to the penguin, applying them to the body with the fluffy part. Lay down the small yellow paws in the same way. Your penguin is completely ready!
Compound with other materials
Before you start making toys from felt, it will be useful for you to know that it can be dumped with many other natural materials: cotton, linen, chiffon, silk, etc. But it is important that the surface of the fabric you choose is quite loose, so that the fibers of the felt could freely penetrate through it. This technique is called nunoiloc. With it, plant fibers are also often used: soy, banana, corn, flax, silk, etc.