needle felted pincushions

needle felted pincushions

materials

Supplies:  felting needles, foam block, plastic caps (I used one from a mayonnaise jar and one from a peanut butter jar), and miscellaneous wool (scraps of yarn, colored fleece and /or roving).  The yarn scraps  are all the little pieces that get trimmed from my knitting projects,  bits from unraveling sweaters  and the scraps from felting projects.

scrap ball

 To make:

1. Take a wad of yarn scraps or other wool and wind a piece of yarn around to form into a ball, using the plastic lid to determine the size ball to make.

ball partially covered with wool

2. Wrap the ball with colored wool (this will be the background color for the pincushion).  With felting needles felt the wool ball down to fit into the plastic lid, shaping it into a half sphere.

wool felted and shaped to fit lid

3.  Using scraps or yarn and or colored wool fleece felt decorations lightly onto the surface of the pincushion.  I used a pen style tool,  using the needles by themselves works but be careful - it is very easy to get poked using just the needles.  Glue pincushion into the lid base - I used Scotch quick-dry adhesive and it seems to hold it pretty well.