Wet Felting A Cradle For Our Blossom Baby

"spring is coming, spring is coming

birdies build your nest.

weave together straw and feather

doing each your best.

spring is coming, spring is coming

flowers are waking, too.

daisies, lilies, and daffodils

now are coming through.

spring is coming, spring is coming

all around is fair.

shimmer, glimmer on the meadow,

joy is everywhere."

Last year I remember seeing my first felted egg over at Childhood Magic's blog (still miss the gorgeousness she always had to share!) I thought to myself  "what a sweet idea for spring..."

She left me inspired to give it a go.  I have never felted before, so I was thrilled to see how it all worked and that it DID work!

I think I am hooked...

For any of you who have never felted ~ creating these wet felted eggs is simple, satisfying and definitely a do-able project (even for the little hands of your home).

Here is a simple tutorial 

You will need

An egg (we used a marble egg but plastic eggs work too)

Wool roving

Dish soap

Bowl of hot water

and patience!

Continue wrapping the egg until you can not see the egg any longer ~ the thicker the wool coat, the stronger your felted egg will be. 

Take your wrapped up egg and pour some dish soap onto it.

Now for the fun part!

 Immerse your egg into a bowl of very hot water. 

When it is all warm and soapy you can start to very gently rub the egg (the girls were giggling watching me pet the furry egg and tell it what a good egg it was ;)  and gently squeeze your soapy egg. Keep turning it in your hands ~ squeezing and rubbing... squeezing and rubbing (continually dipping into your hot soapy water) until you  start to feel the wool fibers binding together. Most importantly be gentle with your little egg so that the fibers keep together ~ if you get impatient and too rough it will start to fall apart.

                   

After it has all begun to hold together nicely, it helps to roll your egg on a wash board or a bamboo mat for the felting to go a little quicker ~ roll for a bit and then put it back into hot water and roll some more...

Once you begin to feel the fibers felting around the egg, it is time to add the burst of color (if you wish!) Rip off small, wispy bits of roving and place them onto the egg in varying directions. Pour some soap onto the egg and repeat the same process of squeezing, patting, rubbing, rolling and dunking. What fun! I was so thrilled to see it come together. 

Grinning to myself ~ it works it works!

Now rinse out the soap.
Dip it into cold water to help strengthen and tighten the fibers.
Wrap it in a cloth, squeeze out the extra water and place it somewhere to dry.

 You have a felted egg ~ hurrah!

Once it is dry you can cut it open with sharp scissors ~  either how we did it (to make an egg cradle), straight across or in a cracked jagged line...

and let your little egg be birthed from her woolen world!

                              

You can then blanket stitch around the openings (making it much more durable for play).

We decided this little egg was in need of someone to make a home of it ~ thus wee blossom baby appeared.

To create

Sew up a little triangular piece of felt for the hat. Glue it on ~ and Voila ~ Blossom baby!

We tucked her into her cradle

She got all cozy

and slipped off into her enchanted realms.

For now she is nestled warm in her wooly world until ...

lt is time to unwrap again!

 My girls seem to be smitten ~ open the cradle, button it down, pull her out, put her back in, unbutton...
as you can see this could go on and on...

Thinking more of these felted eggs shall be appearing in our home in the coming weeks!


Falling in love with felting
~ Shanti ~


P.S. If any of you seasoned felters out there have any extra tips or advice for our readers, by all means please share!