How To: Make a Big Felt Button

Here is an easy tutorial on making needle felted buttons that I created for the Haby Goddess newsletter, which went out today. Jodie has a fantastic online Haby store and also writes daily sewing and craft hints on her facebook page. A must read, really worth a visit.

Needles ready?

Needle felting is a technique where you felt together wool fibres using a special barbed needle. By sculpting the wool as you poke it, the possibilities of what can be made are endless.

Here I’ve made a large wool button that could be used on a knitted garment or as a brooch.
Pay close attention to the pictures as the images form part of these instructions.Finished size is 3.5cm diam and 1.5cm thick
You will need some wool roving, a felting needle and a foam pad & wool yarn to match garment
Take some wool roving and shape it into a round flat disk about 5cm diam and 2cm thick,
When you poke the wool it will firm up and reduce by a third of the original size.
Poke the wool with the needle and sculpt it into shape until it is firm and to the desired size.
Poke the disk a little more in the centre to make the classic button shape.
Needle 4 little holes in the centre of the button as a guide to sew the yarn through.

I recommend hand washing if used on a garment as machine or hot washes will further felt the wool.

I hope you enjoyed that tutorial, please feel free to leave a comment with your questions.

x cinti