Needle-felted Heart Brooch Tutorial

All you need is about 15 minutes (that’s right), a little bit of angst (good for stabbing the wool) and the following bits and pieces

• 1 heart shaped cookie cutter
• wool roving
• needle-felting tool
• needle and thread
• brooch back
• felting mat (optional – but does make things easier) I’ve used a brush felting mat here – you can also use a foam mat.

wool roving and needle felting tool

cookie cutter and felting mat

Alrighty.

So now the goodies are assembled, roll the roving in your fingers kind of like you are rolling dough into a ball.

Place (stuff) roving into cookie cutter on top of felting mat.

Get your angst-y thoughts ready and your needle and start stabbing the roving inside the cookie cutter. Beware your sweet little pinkies as the nasty ole needles can hurt a tad.

Pay particular attention to the rovings near the edge of the cutter, kind of ‘folding’ the wool back into the cookie cutter. Go a little slower as it can be easy to break your needles on the cookie cutter if you are super angst-y.

When you’ve stabbed away for a while, and it’s all looking nice and flat and matted together into a heart shape, take it off the mat, turn it over and have another go  – again giving the edges some love.

Now it’s a solid heart, take it out of the cookie cutter and congratulate yourself. Put the kettle on as it’s almost time to celebrate with a cup of tea.

Grab your needle, thread and brooch back and start stitching away on the side you decide is the back.

And then… it’s already to pin on a favourite vest – either your own or that of a small person who lives in your house.

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