d.i.y.

How to make a hand felted flower brooch
 

Strawberry hand felted and dyed flower brooch, CityCrochet

Hi. I'm Tonya Utkina of CityCrochet and I make brooches and beautiful things with felt. And it's really not that hard. Felting, in fact, is fun! It’s a very creative process that's also eco-friendly and relatively simple. You won’t need any special equipment of hard to find supplies, and the result will be a beautiful accessory — like a hand felted flower brooch, a great addition to any party dress or holiday outfit. So grab some felt and let's get started.

First of all, you'll need felting wool in different colors. Felting wool can be purchased at Ben Franklin or a local craft shop, or on-line at AshlandBay.

For a flower brooch, create a few layers of felt to make the brooch soft and fluffy. To make each layer, lay the wool flat on a plastic surface, and wet it with warm water and soap. Try mixing together different colors of wool to create interesting color combinations. Hand felting is a little bit like painting: you mix the colors and get something amazing at the end!

For the wool to felt, press and stroke it gently with your palms, adding water and soap as needed. It will take a good 15 minutes for each layer to felt. When your piece of felted wool is firm enough so that fiber doesn't separate, your felted layer piece is ready.

Rinse your layers with water and squeeze them gently to get all the water out. Then take a break and let the layers dry. I normally leave my hand felted pieces overnight to dry well.

After your layers of felt have dried overnight, and they're completely dry and soft. It's time to create your brooch. Make your brooch unique by using beads, felted balls, buttons, wood pieces, and pretty much anything you find at home.

I like to attach big buttons in the middle of mine to make them look more like flowers. And don't forget to attach either a safety pin or a special brooch pin at the back of the brooch. These can be purchased at Ben Franklin or a local craft shop as well.

Felted flower brooches are great accessories that add style and color to any outfit. I promise you'll get noticed every time you wear one. And it's so rewarding to know that you make this chic and pretty item with your own hands. Congrats!

If you want to learn more, I've got lots of tutorials and tips on my blog, and I've got tons of felted items in my own shop, CityCrochet.  And for more inspiration, check out these shops and their felted work:

Baymut
feltjar
frenchfelt