Needle Felted Easter Carrot

Wool roving is not cheap, making a big felted project needs a lot of them. If the whole piece of the felted project is done purely from wool roving, it is quite costly and wasting your money. In order to be economical on bigger felting project, we can use a method called felted sculptural core. Basically, it is to needle felt the core with other materials to the shape and size you want, then needle felt colored wool roving to cover the core. I read that we can needle felt a sculptural core with major fiber, so, I tried it with polyester stuffing material since it is readily available in my craft room. Other materials like wool batting, wool core are those commonly used in the felting core. As long as the fiber can be caught and tangle-up among themselves with the barbs of the needle, it can be used to build the core.

I have made a few carrots with this method and really love the result. A friend told me in facebook page that she placed a bell in her felting cat toy and her cat went nuts on it… lol. Apart from the usual photo and written tutorial, again, I have prepared a bionic-woman video to show you the process. Go to next page for all the details. Now, the bunnies I made last year have a permanent carrot boat to sit on {click the link to get the bunny sachet pattern and tutorial].

I find needle felting quite interesting, besides creating beautiful crafts and handmade, it also has some therapeutic effects. When you are frustrated, you jab on the wool to release all the tension and stress. When you can’t focus, you jab the wool and you will find that you get all the concentration that you thought you can’t. When you are happy, you will find every needle going in and out the wool is so beautiful. When you are surrounded by noise, as a temporary escapade, you fall into the small world between the wool and the needle that are quiet and peaceful. When you are in pain, you jab with full concentration then you get into meditation and forget about what’s bothering you. Please tell me if you have any of the experience mentioned here above. At least this is what I found throughout these few weeks of felting and jabbing and piercing. I truly enjoy it.

Watch the “How-To-Make” video tutorial here:

Watch On Youtube

Needle Felted Easter Carrot

Sculptural Core Method

Materials & Supplies:
1. Wool – Orange and a small amount of black or dark brown
2. Felt sheets – light and dark green
3. Polyester stuffing material (I used this), or, wool batting, or, wool core – to make the sculptural core
4. Embroidery floss – Yellow
5. Embroidery needle
6. Felting tool (3-needle or 5-needle)
7. Felting sponge/foam block
8. Scissors
If you need the Carrot Leaf PDF pattern, download here and print it out.

Note:
When doing needle felting, pierce your needle straight into the object (don’t bend the needle) to avoid the needle from breaking.

Get ready all the tools and material as described in the above list.
I used polyester stuffing material for the sculptural core since it is the cheapest and readily available in my craft room. You can use wool batting or wool core if you have them. Basically, wool core and wool batting are easier to felt into the shapes you want. It is cheaper than wool roving too.
I used more than a handful of poly-stuff to make the carrot sculpture.

Needle felt the poly-stuff into a carrot shape. Since poly-stuff is uneven and loose and springy, you will need more piercing and non-stop rolling to make the shape.
Gather more poly-stuff for the carrot top then gradually decrease the quantity as you go down to the bottom.
You can always add some poly-stuff to the carrot if you find it not enough.
If at some point before the surface gets fully felted and you find the carrot is too big or too long, trim it off with scissors, add and needle felt a thin layer of poly-stuff to blend the correction.

If you have 5 or more needle tool, it will be a lot faster to achieve the carrot shape.
I like my core to be firmed and stable, so I took quite some time to pierce it.
Until you are fully satisfied with the shape, pierce the top of the carrot repeatedly to make a dimple so that the leaves can sit in.

Pull a length of the orange wool from the roving, about the length of your carrot.
Split it into about 5 parts.
Stack each of the 4 parts of the wool criss-crossly on top one and another. Reserve the 5th part to cover any white space in between in later stage.
Place the carrot core on the wool pile.

Wrap the core with the wool and needle felt the wool.
You can do this step after attaching the leaves.

Cut some light and dark green leaves from the store-bought ready-made felt sheet. Download the Carrot Leaf PDF Pattern and print it out if you need it.
For advance felters, you can make your own felted leaves.
Sew some decorative stitches on the leaf with yellow embroidery floss.

Place the light green leaf on the dimple, needle felt it into place. Cautious: since the ready-made felt is thick and compact, needle felt is slowly to prevent the needle from breaking.
Repeat the same to the dark green leaf by placing it on a slight angle to the first leaf.

Continue needle felt the orange wool to the core.
Cover any white spot and leaf’s end with the reserved wool. Spare a very small amount of orange wool to make the carrot fold in later part.
Since my sculpture core is firm, deep piercing on the wool won’t cause it to get into the core deeply and hence won’t thin the wool surface too much.

An almost felted carrot. As you may see that the wool is not completely felted to the sculpture core yet, more piercing needed.

Twist some black wool with your fingers to make tiny and short strips. Place them on the carrot then cover with a thin layer of orange wool.
Needle felt them into place. Pierce more on the black felt to make some sunken effect on the carrot so that they look like carrot’s fold.

Check the work and make sure the carrot is completely covered by the orange wool.
~~DONE~~