Needle Felting Teddy Bears for Beginners

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Carefully slide the wool off and hold it at the top and bottom so that it doesn’t unravel. It should look like a big marshmallow. Place it on a sponge and begin to poke it all over with the needle. Keep turning the wool. Poke the needle in where you have anchored it and, leaving the needle there, pivot the strand down towards the stem, making a triangular leaf shape. Remove the needle and felt along this line. Search Press supports the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising of the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (DAAC), and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA).

Step Nine: Use your darker colors to add detailing to ears, muzzle, eyes, and paws. Layering dark and light in the eyes can give you a more realistic look as well. Once you have the fine detail done, needle felt colored fiber on as “clothes” or needle felt a flat cloak, shawl, or even a hat. Once you have been all the way around, turn it and begin to round off the top and bottom. Once it is holding its shape, continue to felt it evenly all over. Only stab to the centre of the shape - not all the way through. To turn your decorative balls into hanging baubles, tie a loop in some jolly thread. Place this on top of the ball and lie some matching wool strands over the thread. Felt the loop firmly in place. Step Five: Take smaller amounts of wool and needle felt one small amount into a ball for the muzzle. Take another two equally sized small amounts and fold the wool over into a rough ear-shape, and needle felt some ears. Leave a loose part on the underside of the muzzle and on the under-side of the ears for attachment purposes. Each bear measures around 10-12cm (4-5in) tall and can be made in a matter of hours from a bundle of wool fibres, a felting needle and some carefully chosen embellishments. Each bear has its own special character, and they make ideal gifts and keepsakes for friends and loved ones. There's a pretty ballet bear, a cool Christmas bear, as well as a vintage bear, rainbow bear and cute baby bears.Step Six:– Assembling: Needle felt the ears, and muzzle onto the head. Also shape for the eyes and felt the head down a bit more. Then needle felt the arms and legs to the bear’s torso. Try and position the legs and arms so that they are equal. This is also the time to decide if you want your bear to have one arm raised, lowered, and needle felt the limbs into the pose you want.

Each project is accompanied by clear, step-by-step instructions and beautiful photographs, and there are handy hints and tips throughout the book to help make the crafting process even easier. Detailed guidance is provided at the start of the book on the materials and equipment you need; how to sculpt a basic bear; make your bears' paws, feet and faces; and how to really bring your bear to life by carefully positioning the nose, eyes and ears. The techniques are easy to learn and soon you will be designing and making bears of your own to keep or give. Take a small amount of coloured wool fibre and rub it in your fingers until you have a little round pad. Place this onto the ball and very gently felt it, using the tip of your needle, until it is firmly attached. Take a tiny piece of wool from a contrasting colour and roll into a ball between your thumb and forefinger. Using your needle on the foam pad, felt this until it's round and flat. Step Four: Create legs using roughly one third more roving than you used for the arms. With the legs, you will want to have a bit of an upturned foot, so do not double the roving but work in a single straight log. One loose end you will shape for the foot, and the other you will leave loose to facilitate attachment. Step Three: Create arms using “logs” of roving. A three to four inch long, narrow strip of roving doubled will usually make one arm comfortably. If you double the roving, the fold is where the paw will be, and the loose ends will help facilitate the arm-to-body attachment.Step Two: Take roughly twice the amount of wool as you used in the head, and use this to form the bear’s body. A good bear body is roughly pear shaped. The body should be felted slightly firmer than the head, you will be attaching the limbs via felting (and sewing) later on, but the body does not need to be soft for this. If you want to leave the tip of the narrow part of the “pear” slightly softer it will facilitate the attachment of the head. Twist the wool strand as you felt gently along it and ‘draw’ a neat line. You might like to curve the line as you go so that it looks like the stem of a leaf. Poke the ends of the strand into the ball. To shape an indent in needle felting, you poke that location multiple times with your felting needle. The more you poke the harder the felt becomes in that spot and the smaller/tighter that spot becomes. In a round shape, this repeated poking can be used to create a 3D muzzle, and cute little eyes on any bear.

Needle-felting is the art of turning wool fibres into 3D shapes using a specialist needle. It is very easy to master and there are only a few things that you need to know to get started.Keep needling the head to firm it up and whilst doing so, try to form the ears from the ball by going round with the needle to form the shape. If you can’t form ears this wayadd more felt and needle them on. Cover any bald spots with smaller pads of coloured wool until you have a neat, even coverage all over. Slide your finger down to almost the tip of your needle and tap the surface all over to push in any loose strands. Needle felting is a simple way to sculpt wool into any 3D object you can imagine. Basic needle felting techniques needed to make a bear include, knowing how to make a ball, a log shape, and how to use your needle to do basic shaping. Of course, also knowing how to avoid breaking your needle, or poking yourself, is also beneficial. Love miniature projects like this? Get your paws on a wide variety of projects, latest news from the world of miniatures, inspiration, expert advice and so much more with Dolls House & Miniature Scene magazine! Pull/cut away the arm at about 0.5in long. Needle the cut/frayed end firmly into the body. The fur/thread will stay in position without anything more than the action of the needle. Repeat.

If you’re not sure where to start, why not try one of Bergin & Bath’s needle-felting kits? There are lots to choose from and they’re all suitable for beginners as they include full step-by-step photographic instructions. Most projects start with a simple ball like this. Turn it into a hedgehog, a mouse or a polar bear.

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Form a ball of felt from the remaining wool at the top of the body for the head by rolling it up and felting together with your needle. Take another small piece of wool and roll into a log. Needle it at one end, creating the first arm shape.