Celebrate Spring with a Felted Flower Headband
Welcome the season of blooming flowers with a delightful craft! Cecily-Kate, a professional heirloom needle felter, discovered her love for wool through Waldorf-inspired projects and now shares her passion through workshops and handmade creations. In this tutorial for Conscious Craft, she guides you through making a Felted Flower Headband—a fun and simple project for children aged 8 and up. Gather your materials and bring a touch of spring to your crafting!
Materials you will need:
- felting needle
- Felting pad or sponge
- Small pinches of roving wool to make petals that match the colours of flowers - yellow and orange for daffodils, purples and lilacs and yellows for crocuses, white for snow drops and cherry blossoms, pale pink and dark pink for cherry blossoms. A pinch of green wool to attach leaves (and make leaves if needed)
-
Old cashmere or wool jumper (or a 3cm x 35cm strip of green felt, a long sock or pair of old wool tights)
-
5cm piece of recycled waistband elastic (if using felt band)
- Needle and thread that match the colour of the old wool sweater or felt strip
1.
Pinch off five small equal bits of wool approx 2cm x 6cm. These measurements are for a slightly scaled down daffodil (decide how small or large you would like your flowers and adjust size accordingly).
Lay them out in a row.
2.
2a. With your felting needle cynch in the middle of each piece with a couple of taps on each side. This will prevent the fibres from migrating sideways when you do step b.
2b. In a straight line needle felt a line across the middle, joining the two cynch edges as seen with the white perforated line in the photo. Do this on all of the pieces.
2c. Fold the bottom half of the piece upwards and stroke the fibres a few times so they lightly adhere to the top half.
2d. Using your needle now prick a line around the edge of the folded piece to create an arch all the way round. This will be the outline of your petal which, in this case is a daffodil. If you are making a crocus or blossom just alter the shape and number of petals according to the flower.
3.
In the photo you can see step d and the completed line of the arch. Next, stroke the outer edge of one side over the arch line so the fibres fold back onto the petal. Do the same for the other side. You can guide the fibres so they stay within the shape of the arch - this will help keep your petals nice and tidy.
4.
Be mindful not to stab too hard - these are delicate petals which will need to be gently peeled way from the pad so using a light touch is always good at this stage.
Gently peel the petals off the mat by pushing down as you lift up, much like peeling a tangerine. This will stop the shape from stretching.
I like to place all my petals in a circle so I can see how they will look as a flower. Lightly finesse the surface as fibres will have breeched through so spend bit of time gently going back and forth on each side until they look good.
5.
To make the daffodil's trumpet simply line up an even row of orange fibres approx 6cm shingles so they make up an 8cm strip. Needle felt a straight line along the centre of the strip as seen in the photo .
6.
Stroke the fibres over the the line like we did on the petals so they fold back wards then evenly and gently needle felt together, leaving the bottom edge wispy.
7.
Gingerly peel the strip away from the mat and create a trumpet shape by wrapping it around your finger. We want the opening to be bigger than the base.
8.Gently remove the excess wool—you can save it for another daffodil!
Gingerly peel the strip away from the mat and create a trumpet shape by wrapping it around your finger. We want the opening to be bigger than the base. Prise away the excess (you can use it for another daffodil).
9.
Position your petals together so the bottom corner overlaps the next as seen in the photo. We want the star of petals to fit snuggly around the trumpet base so before fully securing the five petals together test the size of the hole before anchoring each petal to the next.
10.
Slide the trumpet base into the hole to make sure it’s a snug fit.
11.
Now felt the base of the petals into the base of the trumpet so both are securely felted together (bear in mind we will be needle felting the flowers to the band which will secure all the elements even more).
12.
It should look something like this.
13.
Have fun adapting these techniques and needle felting more gorgeous spring blooms for you head band.
14.
Measuring 40cm x 8cm I cut the headband strip from this lovely old green cashmere sweater that had seen better days before the moth damage. It worked perfectly! If you’re lucky enough to still have your cashmere in one piece then another option could be a strip of felt or a section of woolly tights that are worse for wear after this long winter! You could also wet felt a band, in which case you need to allow for shrinkage. It is important to use a material that you can easily felt into otherwise the needle will break. 15.
Fold the strip in half lengthways so that the ‘back' of the fabric is on the outside. Stitch both the edges together using a slight zig zag stitch - this zig zag will allow the fabric to stretch a bit when it’s being pulled onto the head. Finish off the sewing with a few extra stitches to secure the thread.
16.
Fold the strip in half lengthways so that the ‘back' of the fabric is on the outside. Stitch both the edges together using a slight zig zag stitch - this zig zag will allow the fabric to stretch a bit when it’s being pulled into the head. Finish off the sewing with a few extra stitches to secure the thread.
17.
Keep going … until the entire strip has been turned outside in. You should now have the ‘good’ side of your fabric showing. Lay the strip down on the mat.
18.
Making sure the seam of your strip is flush to the pad and the ‘good’ side it facing up, ready for your flowers. Start by placing your favourite flower in the middle of the band. A few jabs in between the trumpet and the petals will anchor position. Then take a tiny pinch of yellow or orange and needle felt the wispy fibres through the base to further secure the flower down.
19.
Needle felt all the way round the base, both inside and around the outer base, tweaking the shape and accentuating the ruffle of the trumpet.
20.
Build up your design using all the other spring flowers you have made. Follow the steps above in order to fully secure everything.
21.
The underside of the band will have fibres that have breeched through - this is a good sign that the flowers are well felted on!
22.
To add extra depth I cut three or four small strips for extra leaves that I then attached with green fibre along the middle line. Make sure the fibre stays wispy and is loosely attached as this will allow you to really felt the wisps through the middle of the leaves and into the headband, between the flowers.
23.
Each green leaf strip is felted across the middle which effectively creates a pair of leaves.
24.
I used three pairs for this headband.
25.
The stretchy cashmere fabric allowed me to simply sew the ends together by slotting one into the other and stitching with green thread.
If you're using felt, you may want to add about 6 cm of waistband elastic (recycled from old clothing like joggers). Sew one end of the elastic to the underside of the band, then fit it around the head, adjusting for a comfortable fit before attaching the other end.
You can also get creative and use it as a belt or wrist garland, just like my young felting students did!
Blog by Cecily-Kate Jett
