Needle Felted Fall Door Wreath Tutorial

A few years ago, we made Granny a wreath for her door.

It’s still one of my favorite wreaths of all time and Kitty and I think we’ll make one for our own door this year.

Here’s our tutorial on how to make it.

Materials :

• * wool roving in rich fall colors (found on Etsy.com)
• * a foam wreath form (found at craft stores)
• * a needle felting needle (found on Etsy.com)
• * soap detergent and warm water
• * green felt (for a leaf)
• * sewing need and green thread
• * real acorn cap (picked up in nature or found on Etsy.com)
• * glue

Method :

Arrange your felt roving in long strips in the order you’d like them to appear on your wreath.

Wrap each strip around the foam form, making sure the colors overlap a little on each side. It’s important to attach (through the process of felting) the color strips into each other so that they remain in their place when you come to wet felt the wreath later.

Using your needle felting needle, gently poke the wool all around. Poking the needle into the foam is fine.

Pay particular attention to the ends where the colors overlap and needle felt the overlapping wool firmly into the underlying wool.

When the entire wreath is covered with wool roving, take it to the sink to begin the wet felting process. Start with a small section. Wet the wool SLIGHTLY with warm water… you don’t want to use too much water at this early stage as the wool will loosen and come off the wreath.

Put a dime-sized amount of dish-washing soap onto the wool and begin to massage it gently. Pat it, rub it, kneed it… gently at first and then more vigorously as you feel the wool tighten around the wreath form. Add more water. Add more detergent. Your intuition will tell you when to wet the wool more and when to add more detergent. Slowly, slowly… we can’t rush.

Continue this wet felting method all around the wreath.

Once you feel that the wool has tightened around the wreath sufficiently, you can start felting it more vigorously. I find that using a ‘Chinese bangle’ (as my daughter, Kitty, calls it) works really well.

When you feel that the wool has felted firmly around the wreath, rinse it thoroughly, making sure to get all of the soap suds out of the felted wool.

Set it in the sun to dry completely.

Now let’s make the adornments.

Cut out the shape of an autumn leaf on a piece of paper.

Pin it to the green felt and cut around the edges to make your leaf.

Thread the sewing needle with green thread and finish the felt leaf off nicely by sewing a pretty border about a quarter of an inch inside the outside edge of the leaf.

For the felted acorns, make  small felt balls in fun acorn colors. If you need a tutorial to make felted balls, follow this tutorial that shows you how to make small eggs… making the tops of the acorns is exactly the same.

With a little glue, stick the felt balls in to the acorn caps.

If you prefer, you can skip this stage and purchase the acorns (or the felted balls)  in the colors you desire in The Magic Onions Shop.

With your needle and thread, sew the leaf and acorns in place on your dry wool wreath.

Voila! The prettiest felted fall wreath for you door.

There seriously is something magical about the felling and texture of wool felt… it glows with such a natural spirit and fills your room with a rich, organic, essence.

If you are in love with needle felting, as I am, I have many DIY needle felting kits available in The Magic Onions Shop… try your hand at making felted hearts or pumpkins or a myriad of other creations.

Happy fall crafting.

Blessings and magic,

Donni