That's a good question! If you're new to textile crafts, the terms used can be pretty confusing, and I know it's easy to get put off thinking this maybe isn't for you... But please read on to find out all about felt craft and how easy it is for beginners!
Felt craft is any craft project that uses flat sheets of felt to create finished pieces. These might be pictures you frame, pennants and garlands like our kits, or more practical items like bookmarks, needle cases, purses, and glass cases.
It is different to needle felting in that it uses already made felt sheets - whereas with needle felting you are the one creating a solid felt piece from loose wool.
The felt you use can differ widely, from 1mm thick to 10mm, in a wide variety of colours, and in the actual material...
We use wool mix felt which is a combination of 30% wool and 70% viscose. This mix makes it great to work with, especially for cutting out small pieces and for stitching bits together.
You can also get 100% wool felt which is a little harder to work with as a beginner, or 100% acrylic 'felt' which you'll remember from school! This is often a bit firmer and more 'scratchy' to the touch.
Once you have the felt, you can then get making! All of our felt craft kits come with paper templates that you use to cut out the shapes you need.
You then lay out the shapes as shown in the instructions, and begin to stitch them in place using simple embroidery techniques. We include pins to help with this!
You can then add more layers of felt, and embroidery details to bring the piece to life. If you're working on your own projects you might add other textiles, beads and more!
You might see it referred to as appliqué which is correct, but appliqué also covers a variety of other techniques so we tend to avoid it here. It's also comparable to collage, just with felt instead of paper.
Once you've stitched your felt sheets together they can be sewn up to make a larger piece or item, or have bits added like a dowel and cotton to turn it into a pennant.
Our kits come with a 'Guide to Felt Craft' booklet which takes you through all the techniques you will need as well as stitch instructions. You then also get the paper templates, and a detailed step-by-step guide walking you through making your specific piece, with illustrated guides.
Felt craft is a really fun and simple way to get into textile crafts! It is very therapeutic and you'll find time disappears when you sit down and get started.