My Project Tutorials




Sheepish Reindeer
(The one on the left is felted.  The one on the right is a mass produced purchased ornament)






Making the body I started with some cream roving and rolled it into an oval by rolling along the foam pad tucking in end every 1/4 roll until I had rolled all the fiber.  I then held it securely and carefully needle felted one end slightly just to hold the shape and then carefully turned the shape around to felt the other end. Once I had an oval I sat it end on end and needle felted the shape down until it was more round, turned it over and felted the shape down until I had what you see in picture four.


I pushed the circle down and began to needle it flatter and more into the body shape, referring back to the ornament I was trying to somewhat copy.




Next I took some brown and made a fat cone shape for the head.  When the head is somewhat shaped needle felt onto body at about 4 O'clock on the circle.
For 4 legs, there are two ways.  One is rolling felt & covering with a little of the brown fiber used for head.  The other method is using a decent amount of the brown felt and rolling it into a log shape and needle felting it firm.

Roll ready made felt onto a bamboo skewer & felted the end along stick carefully.  Cut into length for legs and cover lightly with fiber and needle felt.  This doesn't take long to felt and is a fast way to do the legs.  Having said that, taking the brown fiber and rolling a sausage shape and felting that for each leg doesn't take all that long either.




both types of legs side by side.
Place all four legs closely together and needle felt in place.  This takes some time and can be fiddly. (I added some fiber to the back and elongated the body some)
Antlers made by wrapping brown fiber around pipe cleaner.  Leave the middle fiber free for wrapping around the head.  Needle felt brown fiber firmly onto pipe cleaner being careful not to hit the wire.  Move the antler from side to side periodically.  Once firm, carefully needle in the antler details or humps if you will.
Antlers both done...when you put on the animal the humps actually face out not in.

Making the ears.  The top is how the ears start and the bottom is the ear half done.  Using the brown fiber needle felt it in a loose firm.
Fold fiber in half & needle felt.
Needle felt and start shaping
Creating a point at the top and hollow it out inside ear.  It almost looks like a spade.
Needle felt ears onto front of antlers and then twist the whole thing onto head.
Scarf & Nose.  Needle felt the scarf flat and the nose round.  When doing a small round try rolling in hand and then carefully holding the round shape on foam carefully needle felt some areas to roughly hold shape.  Then roll the ball between the palms of your hands, periodically breathing into your hand and continue rolling.  This will felt a small item much easier than trying to needle felt a tiny item.  Place scarf around neck being sure to cover the pipe cleaner that shows from wrapping the antlers on.  Needle felt scarf in place.  You can clean up the shape of the scarf when you are felting it onto the head.  Felt the nose on the top of the end of the head.

For the eyes.  Did the small balls the same as the nose.  Having said that I think when I do the second deer I am making I will be using beads for the eyes like on the one I was copying from.  I think I just like the tiny look better and it is difficult to get the eyes small enough to mimic the beads.  I just like the shiny look the beads give, so I will be using those.  Place eyes on head up close to the nose and add a teeny white dot for the gleam in its eyes.  Needle felt eyes into place.

Wouldn't hurt to add a little more of a hump to the top on the body at about 1 O'clock position.  Tale is made with brown and is the shape of a tear drop and needle felted onto back at 8 O'clock position.
Left is the felted sheep/deer & the right is the cheaply made ornament that I was copying.  I will be using the little black beads for the eyes for the next one and making the nose a little smaller.  I carefully held scissors flat against the animals body and clipped any stray little hairs that were sticking out to smooth the body and give it a more finished look.

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