This past week we were unfortunately home sick for several days, so an easy craft project was the best cure for cabin fever. I have wanted to make felt balls, so this was a great opportunity and with a few supplies at our fingertips at home, we made these simple and sweet little felted acorns! A perfect rainy day craft too. They are easy for all ages to make, and require few materials and little energy, but look very professional. And we loved the felting process so much now that we are inventing other ideas to do with these little felt balls — garlands, necklaces, ornaments, the list goes on and on.

I should explain that the week prior, I had saved some piles of pills from jumpers (sweaters) after recently tidying some of our family’s well worn and well loved jumpers with a sweater stone. Creating a craft with leftover pills is great excuse for keeping jumpers in top condition! If not, you could easily use some of these wool top pieces. I had a combo of wool, cashmere, and angora pills… and they all worked well!

Materials needed:

-Warm water in a bowl
-Soap bar or liquid soap (if possible olive oil based)
-Pills or wool top
-Plastic Easter egg, if you have it
-Acorn tops
-Fabric glue / hot glue

10 Easy Steps :

1. Make sure the wool pieces or pills are small so the fibres are malleable to the small shapes
2. Form and gently roll the wool into a loose ball, fluff out lumps of bumps or it won’t turn into a round ball
3. Dip but don’t soak the ball into water
4. Rub a bit of soap into the ball — too much soap will prevent it from felting
5. Drop wool into the egg and then begin to shake
6. Shake for several minutes in the egg in all directions until you have a medium firm ball… and while you are wildly shaking these songs here and here are a fun accompaniment (without the video distraction!) 🙂
7. To make the ball more dense, dip the ball in the water again and add some more soap
8. Roll quickly and apply more pressure as the ball hardens
9. Let balls dry for an hour or so on a tea towel
10. Glue acorn top on, (and trim off any long fibres sticking out if you don’t like them)

I imagine wintery white acorns would be beautiful as well for Christmas. Personally, I adore them in any colour. And how perfectly they would accompany a seasonal table.

Hope you try these, and love making them as well!

Lara  x