Felted balls DIY

Every child likes to play with balls. There should be a lot of them in different colors, sizes and made from the different materials like plastic, wood or textile. 

How about a felted wool balls for your home decor? Let's make it together with Oksana from LaFiabaRussa shop on Etsy!

You will need:

100% wool yarn, new or recycled from old sweaters

one or two unexpensive nylon pantyhose (leg portion only),

a pair of your old jeans

string or cord,

washing machine

Roll the yarn into balls (we are using 100% wool only for this project. Non wool yarn will not felt). 

Now it is ready for a cycle of intensive wash. Stuff them one at a time into the legs of the pantyhose and tie a cord in between the balls.

 Continue this way until all of your balls are inside.

Toss your filled pantyhose into a washing machine on a short hot cycle together with a pair of your old jeans to help the process of felting.

Check your balls, they should be fulled into balls but they are still soft! 

So it's time to embellish them with colorful threads or wool appliqué.

Return your balls to a washing machine for further fulling. Repeat the process of washing on a spin cycle in hot soapy water. Use as little water as possible to help the balls bounce together more.

If the balls still feels too soft after the first cycle run it again.

When the balls are tight enough switch the setting to rinse and add a big towel to hold your balls in place as they spin.

Ready!

For a couple days dry your balls out in warm place with lots of air circulation.

So, here they are, bright, warm, soft and safe for your furniture! Just don’t be surprised if your new felted balls will be a hit with your kids and pets!

How to make felted wool acorns - Monday Tutorial

Felted wool acorns are ideal for decorating homes, offices, back yards and even a Christmas tree. They make our homes look cozy and welcoming. Felted acorns are quite popular and one can buy them either on the Internet or at a farmer's market. But how about creating a few wool felted acorns yourself?

A sunny winter day is ideal for a stroll in a park and almost every park in America has oak trees. Don't just spare your walk! Collect a few large acorn cups that will be later used for creating felted acorns at home!

So how do we start?
Since we already have a few acorn tops we will now need some felting wool. It can be purchased on the internet or in any Ben Franklin store in your city. Apart from wool we will need regular soap and hot water. I usually try to use wool of as many colors as I can find as it helps to create a whole array of multicolored, bright and vivid acorns.

The creation process starts with felting. I normally take a small piece of wool make it into a soft ball, wet it with hot water and add some soap to it. After squeezing and rolling the ball between my palms for good 10 to 15 minutes wetting it and adding soap from time to time I get a felted firm ball that could be gently squeezed into an oval to look like an acorn.

Hang on! We are almost done! The last step is to connect our acorn cups to felted wool ovals. To do this we will need to make holes in our acorn cups. To connect acorn cups I use a mercerized cotton thread. This type of thread is very strong. Chances are slim it will ever tear apart. The thread enables us to hang acorns anywhere we like.

I personally like acorns to be of different shapes and sizes. They look genuine as they pretty much are. Bright wool colors make them look festive and jolly. Felted wool acorns are beautiful, durable and could be used in many ways. They add color and style to one's house and make it look cozy and friendly. They are a perfect gift for anyone you love or care about!

If you like hand felted scarves, brooches, hats, jackets and home decor items you might want to check out these wonderful shops by our Russian Artists team members:
AleksandraRoo
allmadewithlove
Beautyland
CityCrochet
dalmmar
frenchfelt
FunEmbroidery
galafilc
JaneBoFelt
jezek
JuliaFelt
manonknits
SilkMagic
soroka
Svetusha
VitalTemptation
YanArt
woolsolution

This article was written by TonyaUtkina at CityCrochet