Needle Felting Tutorial: Tips For Conserving Your Work

Juanamatú shares three practical tips for keeping your felt toys in good condition

Needle felting is a technique that involves felting wool with a barbed needle and sculpting it into different shapes. With a few materials, patience, and a lot of creativity, you can use this technique to make adorable toys to decorate your home.

Katerin J Gómez–the creative mind behind @Juanamatú–is a needle felting toy artist who sculpts memories into decorative objects. She creates toys inspired by your pets, loved ones, and favorite characters. However, what is the best way to take care of these companions? In this tutorial, Katerin shares some practical tips for keeping your felt toys in good condition. You can watch the video below:

Three tips for looking after your felt toys

1. Dealing with stray fibers

Needle felting toys tend to have a long life span. However, being made of fibers that have been felted, not sewn, means they can become damaged due to environmental factors or dust. If we handle them a lot, the fibers can start to become dishevelled. There's a simple solution: grab a needle and felt the fibers again. Use scissors to cut any stray fibers.

2. Cleaning your toys with a cloth

Dust can be your greatest enemy. So, take a damp cloth and gently wipe the felt to clean your toy and get rid of any dust.

If you spill something on your toy, the best solution is to put it under running water. Don’t use soap and leave it to dry in the shade.

3. Fixing discoloration

Sunlight acts as a developer. This means that when exposed to light, your toy can acquire yellow tones. However, there’s a simple way to fix discoloration: you can simply redo the color layers. Alternatively, you can accept this aging process and embrace your toy’s new look.

If you have enjoyed this tutorial, remember that you can learn how to make unique felt toys that can move by adding a wire skeleton in Juanamatú’s course, Needle Felting Animal Creation.

You may also like:

Art Toy Creation: Needle Felting Technique, a course by Droolwool
Needle Felting: Creation of Characters with Needle and Thread, a course by Carolina Alles
Confection of Miniature Clothing, a course by Carolina Alles