Luckily for me, needle-felting is quite forgiving. Unless a finger gets in the way – that really hurts!
Don’t be alarmed by the number of photos and steps shown here. The process from start to finish should take you about 20 minutes.
Basic supplies: Felting needle, foam, and roving. All of these supplies can be bought from Living Felt. (please note: this is not a sponsored post and does not contain affiliate links!)
Let's get started...
How to Make the Stalk
1. Grab a bit of white roving. How much? Perhaps a 6” long piece as thick as your thumb.
2. Gently pull the roving apart and arrange the long layers on top of each other.
3. To ‘pre-felt’ the roving… roll the layers between your palms and you will see the roving start to felt together to form a stalk shape.
4. Put the stalk on the foam and stab the roving with your needle. The needle is barbed and very sharp. As you stab the roving, it felts together. Stab up and down the stalk, then turn the stalk and stab some more. Keep doing this until the stalk becomes solid.
5. Leave the ends raw and frayed.
How to Make the Mushroom Top
1. Grab some brown roving – about 12” long and as thick as 2 fingers.
2. Roll the roving loosely into a coil. Put the roving on the foam. Starting on the outside of your coil, stab the needle into the roving and continue all the way around the roving. Pay special attention to the ‘seams’ of the roving where two pieces join.
3. Pick the roving up off foam (it also felts to the foam), turn the roving over and repeat felting.
4. Once the roving is felted and feels like fiber, gently manipulate it with your fingers to create the bowl shape you would like.
How to Attach the Mushroom
1. Fray the end of the stalk and gently lay it on top of the mushroom cap. Place the two pieces (cap and stalk) on the foam and gently stab the frayed end of the stalk into the top.
2. Once the frayed stalk ends are attached to the mushroom top, stab the middle of the stalk and push it into the mushroom. Continue to stab the stalk and top until they are well attached.
3. The white roving of the stalk will be apparent from the top of the mushrrom. Let's cover the white...
4. Take a small piece of brown roving, coil it up to make a circle.
5. Felt the small piece of brown roving onto the top of the mushroom top – this will make a little cap and hide any white roving that you can see.
How to Finish the Mushroom
1. Pull off a piece of green roving about 6" long and as thick as your little finger. I like to use several different shades of green, but it is fine to only use one.
2. Pull the roving apart and lay the pieces on top of each other. Coil the roving to form a circle, as you did the mushroom top.
3. Felt the green roving together.
4. Repeat step one using brown roving. Place the green felt piece on top of the brown felted piece and attach by stabbing both pieces of felt. Keep picking the pieces off the foam and changing position.
6. Place the frayed stalk end on the green felt and attach by gently stabbing the frayed end of the stalk into the green roving. Once the frayed stalk ends are attached to the green bottom, stab the middle of the stalk and push it into the green. Continue to stab the stalk and bottom until they are well attached.
7. Take a little extra green roving and felt it around the stalk.
8. If you want, add a few tiny coils of roving for flowers. With a hot glue gun, attach the mushroom to an acorn cap.
Yea – you are done! Make lots – a little mushroom colony is really sweet.
