(401) Needle Felting: Finishing and Embellishing Textiles
Needle felting is a useful and fun technique that can be used to both embellish fabrics and construct items. This workshop focuses on needle felting techniques for creating pictorial panels that can be used on garments, accessories, and furnishings and goes beyond to construction techniques. The use of handwoven, knit, pre-felted and commercial fabrics as backgrounds will be discussed and samples made. Samples and a finished pictorial panel will be completed that can be mounted for display or sew into a finished pillow, purse, or garment.
Methods of blending fibers to make custom batts for felting wool, silk, and metallics will be shown and incorporating yarns, mohair locks, pre-felted sections, and other elements that enhance the final work will be introduced. Learn needle felting techniques used in sewn items for binding seems, reducing bulk in seams, making darts, shaping armholes and hatbands, and more. Exploration will also include designing with handwovens for garments, hats, etc.
Instructor:
Experience Level:
All Levels
Maximum Class Size:
16
Materials fee:
$15 covers wool fiber, yarn, silk, and other novelty fiber, sample backing fabric.
Student Supplies:
- 1/2 yard fabric or two 18 x 18 inch fabric squares. Light weight wool, woven or knit is best. (Recycled is great!)
- Scissors.
- Wool felting needles: 5-10 each of small, medium and large.
- Single needle holder.
- Multiple needle holder (often hold 5 to 8 needles).
- Finger cots (protectors).
- Needle felting pad.
- Straight pins.
- Pencil.
- Pictures of scenery, e.g. sunsets, mountains, flowers, trees.