Felt toys - original and unusual

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Felt is a fairly dense material that consists of synthetic fibers or felted wool. Usually it is produced in the form of panels, which, depending on the purpose, have different thicknesses. The undoubted advantages of this interesting material are the following: a wide range of colors, it is easy to glue or sew on, it has a different thickness of the sheet, it is not loose, and it also 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 photo frames, you can easily decorate the cover of your notebook with it, sew various pleasant little things. In addition, this material can even decorate bedspreads and pillows. In particular, it will allow you to show your flight of fancy in decorating children's rooms.

History of felt

Few people know that felt is a very ancient material that was first found several centuries ago in Anatolia. It was this simple raw material that was the only one in those days, which is why bags, bedding, clothes and even jewelry were made from it. Nowadays, it has regained its popularity, especiallyin European countries.

It is noteworthy that our great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers made felt toys, but today even children like to make them, for whom this activity often becomes a real hobby. According to experts, when working with him, the child acquires calm and peace, learns to focus on details.

Joint activity unites

If you work together with your child, you will have more time to be together and talk heart to heart. Also, later on, you will feel warmth and outgoing kindness from a jointly made toy made of felt. How to make such souvenirs? There is nothing easier - you only need felt and a soapy solution (if we are talking about wet felting technique). And ready-made souvenirs will be just a wonderful gift for any occasion.

What does such a gift say?

To present a felt toy means to present a piece of your warmth and tenderness to your dear person. Agree that not a single, even the most expensive Chinese doll or car can convey all the positive that only felt toys can 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 to make jewelry: bracelets, hairpins, brooches, pendants andetc. In a word, you can make anything you want out of it, even designer toys made of felt, the main thing is to put all your love and kindness into the product!

Basic felting techniques

There are 2 of them - wet and dry felting. The choice of technology must be made, taking into account what product you want to get in the end. In some cases, a mixed technique is used, which combines 2 of these at the same time. Let's look at one of them using the example of a master class for making a simple toy.

Making a penguin

This will come in handy:

1. Felting wool in three colors (white, yellow and blue).

2. 2 black beads with a diameter of 5-6 mm.

3. Different needles (fine, medium and thick).

4. Glue.

5. Needle for throwing out wool fibers.

Step-by-step production:

1. Take a piece of wool of the approximate size of the future toy. Roll it into a ball and start poking a thick needle into it. For shaping, be more diligent in places where you will have indentations.

2. Decide where your penguin will stand and make that side as flat as possible. So you get a finished base with a pimply and not quite even surface. To make the penguin look attractive, you can even out the base with a thin needle, as you did earlier.

3. Now you should mark the place where the face will be a little later. Roll to the finished base whitewool while shaping the front of the heart-shaped figure using fine and medium needles. Also add a piece of yellow wool here for the nose of the penguin. In order to make his eyes, at the top of the nose, form 2 small holes with a medium needle, where you insert the beads. Glue them on. The muzzle is ready!

4. Now attach the wings. Take 2 small blue pieces of wool of the same size. Felt them, creating 2 triangles no more than 3 mm thick. On one side of the figurine, leave the wool fluffy. Now roll the wings to the penguin, applying them to the body with the fluffy part. Roll the little yellow paws in the same way. Your penguin is ready!

Connection with other materials

Before you start making toys out of felt, it will be good for you to know that it can be felt with many other natural materials: cotton, linen, chiffon, silk, etc. But it is important that the surface of the fabric you choose when doing this was rather loose, so that the fibers of the felt could easily penetrate through it. This technique is called "nunofelt". With it, vegetable fibers are also often used: soy, banana, corn, linen, silk, etc.