Happy Sun Needle Felting Tutorial

Last week, I needle felted my first baby mobile charm and this week I wanted to share a felting tutorial on my second mobile charm:  A Happy Sun!    Simply put,  mobile charms  are small toys attached to a baby mobile.  I always switched up the toys on my children’s mobiles and I decided to make a few of the felted variety.   I just love handmade additions to a nursery.

This sun is a basic design made from a wet felted ball and a grip of needle felted triangles.  It is a pretty easy project, but the triangles are a bit tricky to get just right! Here it goes . . .

You need: Wool roving/batting, felting needles, felting pad/brush, and embroidery thread.

A wet felted ball is used for the base of this sun toy.  Follow my tutorial on wet felted balls and then move on to the triangles!

Needle felted triangles will represent the rays of the sun.  A triangle template will help ensure that all of the triangles are roughly the same size.  Just cut a triangle out of a piece of paper; use the wet felted ball to estimate the appropriate size of the triangle/ray.

I like to place a piece of paper between my wool and felting brush; it creates a smoother finish. Place the template on a tuft of wool.  Then needle felt around the edges to create an outline of a triangle.

Take the extra wool from a side of the triangle, fold it to the center, and needle felt it down.  Do this on one more side.  Do not felt the third side of the triangle; the unfinished side will be used to attach the triangle to the ball.

Now, needle felt the 2 edges of the triangle.  Then needle felt the top of the triangle.  Flip it over and needle felt the opposite side.  Size down a needle and needle felt the entire triangle once more.  Compare the completed triangle to the template as you go, making sure that you do not change the overall shape and size too much as you felt.

Take the wet felted ball and a piece of paper.  Draw a circle around the ball.

As the triangles are created, lay them out along this circle.  Keep making triangles until the entire circle is outlined with them.

If you would like, now is time to attach the hanger to the felted ball.  Follow my tutorial on this, if you need a little help!  The tutorial will give similar results to the hanger on the sun; the only difference here is that I am using twisted embroidery thread to create the hanger!

Next pin the triangles to get an idea of where they should be placed.  I made three sets of three colors and decided to felt them into place in a pattern.  First I placed the three bright yellow triangles equally around the ball and needle felted them in place.  Then I did this with the orange and finally the golden yellow.

Next, needle felt the main color onto the ball.  Felt the front and back side of the sun making sure that the core color does not peek through.  A good light is necessary during this stage!  Use a smaller size felting needle(a larger number) and felt it again; this will help smooth out any lumps and bumps.

The final step is needle felting a sweet little face.  Again, I have an easy tutorial for this if you need a bit of explanation!

The smiling  sun charm is now complete.  This toy sun is sure to brighten any child’s nursery!  I’m excited to get started on more baby mobile charms; they are such fun and adorable too.  Good Luck!

information was taken by felting http://handmadefelttoys.com/