Welcome to Felter Skelter, your essential guide for needle felting inspiration and ideas!
With the festive season on the horizon, we’ve put together a collection of our favourite needle felting gifts and books that will appeal to the needle felting fan in your world!
We’ll start with needle felting books to inspire you and then we’ll pick the tools you’ll need to get felting! Here’s the list!
- I Felt Awesome by Moxie
- Felt Passion by Ellen Bakker and Ricarda Aßmann
- Easy Stuff to make with Fluff by Gillian Harris
- Embellish, Stitch, Felt by Sheila Smith
- Needle Felting Pad
- Needle Felting Mat
- Finger Protectors
- Felting Needles
- Needle Felting Handle
- Clover Multi-Needle Pen Tool
- Bauble Needle Felting Templates
- Sugar Skull Needle Felting Kit
- Toadstools Needle Felting Kit
Needle Felting Books
I Felt Awesome
by Moxie
This remains one of my favourite needle felting books and although it’s out of print, you can still find a copy if you hunt it out!
Packed with humour as well as tons of wisdom, Moxie will inspire you to try needle felting and make all manner of fun felty friends!
Felt Passion
by Ellen Bakker and Ricarda Aßmann
If you want to be truly inspired by what can be made with needle felting, then Felt Passion is a must-have!
95 artists share their creativity, and with over 750 colour photos, it really is a rich resource of amazing art from wearable art to sculpture and so much more!
Easy Stuff to make with Fluff
by Gillian Harris
Our third book choice is a broader look at what can be done with fibres, from crochet and spinning to weaving and felting.
It is jam-packed with ideas and projects for you to try and there’s plenty of opportunity to explore new crafts, while making good use of all that fluff!
Embellish, Stitch, Felt
by Sheila Smith
If you’re a confident needle felter, maybe it’s time to stretch yourself with a touch of embellishment!
Sheila Smith is a well-respected textile teacher and in this book she will explore using techniques like applique and needle punching to elevate your felting creativity!
Needle Felting Gifts
Needle Felting Pad
If you’re going to stab something 1000 times, you need a good pad to poke your needle into. Trust us, it’s much easier than pulling your plunges and these Jute pads are perfect for this purpose.
These hand-made Jute pads from LorriBeaCrafts come unfilled, so you can add rice (or lavender for a fragrant flourish) and you’ll have a great platform to work on.
Needle Felting Mat
Your felting pads will take a pounding over time, and this 100% wool mat is an ideal protection for your trusted cushions – place them on top and you’ll give your pads a longer lifespan!
We recommend this pack of three mats from LincolnshireFenn on Etsy for the best variety of surface protection.
Finger Protectors
We’ve all been there – you’re deep in the zone, the felt is taking form and things are looking good. And then you stab your fingers. And then five minutes later, you do it again..! Son of a…
Despite the best of intentions, you’re more than likely to hit your non-dominant hand with your needle, but these leather finger protectors from FeltThingsShop can minimise the risk of puncture or bleeding!
Felting Needles
Needle felting without needles, is needless to say, a bit tricky. They are the most important element of your stabbing set-up and we’ve got a fantastic post explaining why you need special needles here!
HeidiFeathersonEtsy has a huge variety of needles for your felting fancy, with colour coding to help you choose the right ones!
Needle Felting Handle
Once you’ve got your needles, you need to get to grips with them, and HeidiFeathersonEtsy’s wooden handle will do the job nicely!
This two-part handle is natural to the touch and can hold four needles at once, which is ideal for most of your structural work!
Clover Multi-Needle Pen Tool
For finer detail work, you can get more precision with a pen tool for felting rather than a handle, and the Clover Pen Tool is a popular choice.
SweetPeaDolls is one of a few Etsy sellers who has this multi-needle tool in stock.
Bauble Needle Felting Templates
Felting templates can be a helpful shortcut to getting the forms you want, and are great needle felting gifts for the beginner who may not be confident in shaping felt.
We thought these Bauble templates from MumsMakery looked like a nice way to get festive with your felting, but you want to get them now so you can gift bespoke baubles to all your besties!
Sugar Skull Needle Felting Kit
There are many needle felting kits out there, but these Día de los Muertos Sugar Skulls are darkly delightful!
The kit from Bergin & Bath contains six shades of wool, a needle and a guide that will have you making soft sugar skulls in no time!
Toadstools Needle Felting Kit
If skulls aren’t your thing, that’s cool. This toadstool kit from The Crafty Kit Company is a good alternative.
What better way to appreciate the beauty of some of nature’s most overlooked creations than needle felting some fungi!
So there it is! Our guide to the best needle felting gifts for you or for the felty fanatic in your life. There’s something for everyone!
If you are just starting out, the Sugar Skull Kit is an efficient way to get the materials and guidance to make the first felty forms.
If you’re more experienced, treat yourself to the Felt Passion book and explore the world of needle felting inspiration.
And if you want more needle felting, we have hundreds of posts for you to enjoy!
Want some Needle Felting Inspiration?
What Technique Is This?
Needle Felting is the process of using a notched or “barbed” needle to compress layers of wool into denser felt that can be manipulated to create 3D sculptures. It is different to wet felting, which uses water to combine wool fibres, and these days there are a range of felting tools available that can enable you to make your own soft sculptures with ease!
