Felt Flowers

This week I found a felt ornament kit on sale at Michael's (the craft store), so I had to try it out. I've never made felt flowers before, but these were very easy. The kit includes individual petal pieces and circles of felt, as well as clear plastic beads for the centers. (I didn't use the string or labels that were also in the kit.) The kit makes three 5-6 inch flowers.

Since I have a felting needle, I decided to felt the flowers together rather than use glue or a glue gun. If you're not familiar with felting needles, they are very pointy, very sharp, and barbed on the sides. The basic method of needle felting is to poke the needle through the material to be felted, and it merges the fibers together. Ordinarily, I felt on a brush pad, so that I don't poke my fingers. For this project I went for a hands-on approach, and ended up poking myself a few times. Only a few times. Sometimes you have to suffer for your art.

My first attempt was mounted on a black headband to create this fascinator:

 

My coworker told me it was cute. Of course, she could have just said that to be nice so that I don't lick her mouse when she's out of the office. Not that I would do that. Again.

 

Anyway, my second project, the smaller, cream colored flower, was made with three 2-inch diameter felt circles cut into 4 petals each, then felted together. This wasn't part of the kit- I just came up with this on my own:

  

After getting the hang of it with the first red flower, I went back to the kit and made another one that was more structured. With this one, as I got closer to the center of the flower, I cut the length of the petals so that they fit together in the center a little better: 

I'm pretty happy with the results. I hear Michael's has felt on sale, so I'm off to the store today to buy some in more colors. I have a feeling these flowers will be an ongoing project. Right now I'm pinning them up on my wall at work. Eventually I'll have to find something to do with them or I'll end up with a garden of felt dahlias. Everyone needs colorful, crafty accessories, right?