To prepare the roving, follow the needle felting instructions but skip the steps where you needle felt the wool. If you buy some raw roving or batting from a local farm, and make dryer balls yourself, they will actually be cheaper than the imported dryer balls. 2. BTW, what does your hot pink bracelet say? If you want to knit something with the chunky Peruvian wool "The Wool" in a certain size, we From felt ball necklace to felt bead rug, the possibilities are endless. You can also make shaped felt pieces by using cookie cutters or other molds to shape your felt as you work. If you are looking for ideas for kids crafts to do at home, this method is highly recommended. Once you have 34 grams of wool wound up in a ball, the ball is ready. Dunk the ball into the hot soapy water and squeeze the air out. 1 oz. I am a felt-a-holic! Please note that needle felting is not kid-friendly, the needles are barbed and very sharp. This is very important, since yarn that isn’t 100% wool won’t felt properly. probably could use any natural fiber. Wool Roving – Any kind (sheep, alpaca, etc), appr. Make sure the yarn you use is 100% wool. Sorry, we are not sure how many each bag will make. Look for 100% wool yarn. Looks like fun! Pull off another 20 inch length of roving and repeat the wrapping and felting process, four times with each length of wool. How to machine felt a wool dryer ball Prepare the wool. Alternatively, just make white dryer balls. For each ball, I pulled apart the roving to create a large puff ball that I shaped into a roundish shape: Next, I dipped the wool into the hot, soapy water and began to shape it carefully into a round shape using the palms of my hands: Round and round I rolled the wool, careful not to press too hard, until it began to felt…..you will feel it becoming denser, and denser as you roll: I rolled each felt ball until it was a perfectly round, dense piece of felt. After wrapping your yarn into balls, you wash them in pantyhose so the yarn “felts” together and becomes a solid ball that won’t unravel. I don’t know why felt balls are so appealing…..but they are. Glad you have had such a productive day. Thank you for reading! If you’re more into decorating dryer balls than making them, consider buying wool dryer balls and using these instructions . Mix 4 tablespoons (59 mL) of liquid dish soap and 6 cups (1.4 L) of hot water. For other patterns, it is useful to draw the design on the ball using chalk. I've found that certain knits refuse to felt no matter what I do - even if the wool content is high. Yarn is also usually more expensive than roving. Disclosure: I use Amazon affiliate links to help pay for the costs of this website. Wash in your laundry machine on the hottest setting with a bit of laundry detergent. Note: Stay away from any wool labeled “superwash” or “machine washable.” This type will NOT felt. It will show you how many balls you need per type of yarn. Thank you ! So, why not take the opportunity to be creative and make your own?If you’re looking for an easy felting idea, this quick craft project on ‘how to make wool dryer balls’ is not to be missed. 2. There are so many projects you can use them for: garland, hair accessories, wreaths etc…..I’m just getting started. It is a high quality, 100% wool roving that works well and finishes beautifully in many different projects. How to make felted wool dryer balls with wool roving, or from raw wool, or from yarn. I prefer to felt directly onto the dryer ball rather than felting the design on a foam needle felting and then felting it on the ball, however, the choice is yours. The best yarn is 100% wool. If you decide to felt more than one, keep adding the balls to the leg of the pantyhose and tie some string in a bow between them until you have something that resembles a round string of sausages. Split your roving in half, up the middle. With the variety of colors, you have the opportunity for some truly beautiful variations in your work, too. These dryer balls are their favorite for the durability and they are hypoallergenic, they are particularly kind to sensitive skin. *This post contains affiliate links. Ashley (or anyone else reading this), do you know if there is another fiber I can use instead of wool? Yahoo! You can purchase pre-dyed packages of 100% wool roving in a variety of colors: Or you can dye your own natural wool roving with Jacquard acid dye.…or even Kool-aid (I’ll have a separate tutorial for dyeing tomorrow): To start the felting process, I filled a tub full of hot water and added about a tablespoon of dish soap to create a sudsy mixture. This is adorable…but, I’ll have to be honest w ya…I’ve never even heard of felt balls…let alone WET felt balls, who knew??? Fill your bowl with hot water and add 3 table spoons of liquid soap (I like to use. For the felting techniques, I will cover how to wet felt dryer balls, how to make needle felted dryer balls, and how to felt them in your washer and dryer. Example 2. The first step in making felt balls is to rip the wool roving into small pieces…be sure to rip and never cut the wool roving…the raw edges mend together easier than edges that have been cut with scissors. It doesn’t matter which type of wool you chose to use (yarn, roving, or raw wool), it can be felted by either wet felting it, needle felting it, or using your washer and dryer to do the work. If you would like to watch a quick video of how to machine felt a yarn dryer ball, check this video out. In warm sunlight they can dry fully in as little as six hours, but in cooler conditions or with bigger-sized balls it can take up to 24 hours for them to dry. What you’ll need to make felt balls: Felt wool — SO many different, fun colors you can get for under really cheap. 15-20 cm between your hands and then tear. To do this cut or pull off between about 3"- 4" for the bigger balls and 1 1/2"- 2" for the smaller balls. Make sure your needle felting tool has lots of needle or this will take hours to finish. I made a necklace with felted balls out of my cat’s fur and gave it to our catsitter (who’s REALLY crazy about our cat). Most hobby stores sell it, or you can purchase it online here. You will need some basic wet felting equipment for this: A bowl of water, liquid soap. Oh I love those happy colors! I am also going to make a necklace . You rock!!! [footer_backtotop href="#top" text="Return to Top"] 3. How to Make Wool Dryer Balls (Felted Yarn) Choosing Your Yarn. If you would prefer to buy your dryers balls, Amazon and Etsy have a great range to choose from. You can even recycle wool sweaters that are no longer wearable. I might be totally late on asking this, but how many felt balls were you able to make from the .7 oz bags the link takes you to? It shouldn’t be a blend, but just all wool. Needle felting a pre-felted wool design. Kitchen scale. It is much cheaper to buy raw wool batting. You will need to run the dryer ball through a hot drying cycle once to smooth down the ‘fluffy’ fibers on the surface. The fiber type / blend: I have found that a blend of 65% or higher wool content yields the best results. Most dryer balls are white but they don’t have to be. Hey there I am a bit confused how many kg or meters I should use. Are you tired of waiting for hours for your laundry to dry? To make an owl face, take some grey wool and needle felt the whole ball except for a heart shaped patch, which will be the face. . The Great Smoky Mountains and Western NC Hiking. This looks easy enough for even me to do! Thanks for sharing! materials. It will shrink quite a bit more than the other two methods so make sure your ball is bigger than you think it needs to be (or go by the dry weight of wool). If you would like the shapes you needle felt onto your dryer ball to have a marbled effect, you will need to prefelt wool and cut the prefelt into the shapes you want before needle felting them on. Oh I signed your petition as did my husband. Take one piece and roll it tightly into a ball. Super cute! I’m gonna try my hand at it! You don’t need to be gently, the more pressure the better. . I’ve always wondered how they are made!! They are soft and bouncy. Each piece will be felted onto the ball of wool, one at a time to make it more manageable than doing it all at once. Thanks for any suggestions on alternative fibers! Stir the bowl to form a soapy mixture. Each felt ball needs to dry for about 24 hours so it can completely dry out: I used this batch as felt beads…..threading them onto some elastic string: A bright and fun piece of jewelry! Baking tray. *Note: If you have 100% wool yarn or old 100% wool sweaters, etc., you can use those for the core of your wool dryer balls. For the amount of wool to use, you can see from the pictures that a good sized handful winds up making a small call maybe 1 inch across. Pull on the wool to slightly separate the fibers. I’ve been trying to tag you on FB w a pic of my granddaughters in their little tye dyed heart tshirts with the skirts attached…I don’t think I’m having much luck, but will ck with my IT techie son tonight. When I did this project with my students they loved seeing the surprise inside. If you want to needle felting your dryer balls, I recommend using roving or raw wool. There are only two things that are important to felting success: 1. This felted piece will be about 20″ x 12″ so 2 ounces of roving is plenty. I set out today to make some of my own using a wet felting process. Love ya, If it’s wool, I probably have a stash of it. Stay tuned for more felting tutorials! And so easy, I had no idea! Feel better. Shut the Front Door! Living a simple, creative life in #smalltownusa Bryson City, NC. Thanks for the lesson. Well, using wool dryer balls will not only speed up the drying process but it will also reduce your energy bill, remove pet hair, de-clump your laundry, reduce the chemicals in your laundry, and they are eco-friendly. Thanks for your help. Making a felt ball is the easiest form of wet felting there is….taking layers of wool roving (combed wool) and creating a dense, uniform, and seamless ball. For small loads, 3 or fewer dryer balls should suffice. To prepare the yarn,  wind it up to form a ball, turning the ball as you go to keep it a perfect spherical shape. First of all it was never made for knitting to begin with. Filed Under: Felting and Fiber Arts, Jewelry, Supplies, Things I've Made, Toys and Accessories, Tutorial. Spend 2 – 5 minutes needle felting it into a dense ball. You will need a felting tool and felting wool. Do this twice so you have 4 lengths. Note: your wool will shrink anywhere from 20 – 30% during the felting process so plan your piece accordingly. Thread the needle with embroidery floss. I recommend estimating conservatively so that you have wool roving to make your balls. When it finishes the agitation cycle, before draining, you can restart the agitation cycle again to speed up the felting process. Using dryer balls is simple. You then place the shape on the dryer ball and needle felt it into the ball. My clever sister made a beautiful felt ball necklace for my toddler as a Christmas gift and she adores it. Another option is to use a combination of yarn and roving. Pull off another 20 inch length of roving and repeat the splitting, wrapping and felting process, four times with each length of wool. silk, cotton, cashmere, angora, or even soft dog fur. Using yarn is the fastest method but it doesn’t look as professional as wet felting or needle felting the dryer ball. Thank you for this! The best way to add decorations is by using a needle felting tool to felt on some fun coloured wool in any pattern or design you like. Once you have added all the wool, make sure the shape is spherical and the ball is dense, and the fibers are well felted in. Roll it against bubble wrap for the best agitation and friction to speed up the felting. To prepare the yarn, wind it up to form a ball, turning the ball as you go to keep it a perfect spherical shape. Take some yellow wool and felt a long pointy beak. Love you!! Then repeat it again with another 20 inches of wool, for a grand total of 60 inches of roving (this should be approximately 34 grams of  wool). Rotate the ball as you roll to give it a spherical shape. Reduce your normal drying time by 10 minutes to prevent static electricity build up. Wet felting is the most fun and looks the best. Thanks Ashley. When you have added all the wool (this should take about 30 minutes) felt it really well, for ten minutes or so. No problem. The machine felting works wonderfully, is great if you don’t have much time and you want to make more than one dryer ball,  however, it consumes a lot of energy and water and the process isn’t as fun. Love it. I’m trying to figure out how many bags I need for a mantle garland project , P.S. Make Your Own Felt Balls Creating felt balls is an easy DIY crafts project you can make to use for a lot of craft projects. The great thing about decorated wool dryer balls is that when they come to the end of their life as a dryer ball (and have shrunk considerably), you can string them up as felted wool Christmas tree ornaments! Make sure you weigh the wool out first rather than going by size. Add two additional strips of roving or more to make a large ball. How much wool roving you need depends, obviously, on how large a piece of felt you want to make. Homemade felted wool dryer balls are also much less expensive to make than to purchase. Do this for 2 minutes until the ball is round and the fibers hold together by themselves. If not, spend a further 15 minutes or so felting it in. Renovating a 1960s ranch house and an old train depot. Your ball of  needs to be 100% pure wool for it work properly. Thank you for sharing yourself and your talents. Fill a bowl with hot water and mix in the dish soap. Then use the felting pen to combine them all together into a round ball shape. If you would like to try this activity with kids, use the wet felting or machine felting process only. If you own a pet and want to reduce pet hair on your clothes. Well, obviously not me. Disclosure: This information may contain affiliate links which means if you click and buy, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Jan 15, 2017 - Explore Jeannie Powell Hodge's board "Wool Roving projects" on Pinterest. Making a Composition Book Art Journal.... Christmas Tree Photography with your DSLR (A Tutorial), 18 Elf on the Shelf Ideas (An Elf-Sized Photo Shoot), Hiking to a Plane Crash in the Smoky Mountains via Waterrock and Browning Knob, A Stuffed Frog Prince (A Tutorial and Download). All you’ll need for this project is some wool roving (scraps of 100% wool yarn will work as well) and an old pair of pantyhose. You wind a ball of yarn and then ravel roving around it to finish it off. No hate comments here lol. I had saved several of our old wool dryer balls that were beginning to unravel or had exploded in the dryer, and used those for the core of several new dryer balls. Use detergent that does not contain scents or dyes.) How much the wool shrinks really depends on the kind of wool, even sometimes the color and how much you felt it. And you’re not limited to loose wool. Copyright Lil Blue Boo © 2020 | Privacy Policy. For large loads, you should use six or more dryer balls in order to dry your laundry effectively and make sure to remove one article at a time once it is done so as not to lose them. Wool that has been heat set is colourfast, hand dyed wool may not be. When you’ve finished your ball, poke the end of the yarn into the ball using a tooth pick or darning needle, so the end isn’t loose. You can use wool yarn, roving, or raw wool to make dryer balls. Yarn, roving, silk sliver or other felt can be needle felted onto other pieces as decoration. To find out more about what laundry balls are and how they work, check out. Most people needle felt it or wet felt it into scarves, clothing, hats, home decor and toys. The wool traps a lot of air, making it look much bigger than the end result. You can felt one or more balls at a time. Smaller balls will inherently use less roving I say tightly because say you want a 1 inch ball, the tighter it is the more durable it will be but the more roving you will use. I would like to make a large blanket 70”x80” and I am looking on eBay the description says 250g a ball and 45m chunky wool yarn so how many of those would I need as it seems I need more if I go by the kg than by the metres what do you think. Looks like fun to try, that looks like so much fun – I will have to try it. However, like the yarn ball, it won’t last as long as pure roving or unprocessed wool. Then repeat it again with another 20 inches of wool, for a grand total of 60 inches of roving (this should be approximately 34 grams of  wool). Allow the felted wool balls to dry. of wool roving makes one ball, and you need about 4-8 balls to make a difference; A sock or pantyhose; String or yarn if you use a sock; Your fingers; 5 to 10 drops of an essential oil of choice for each ball (I like Lavender the best ) (where to buy high quality essential oils) Step #1: First, take the wool and form it into a small clump. I purchased all of my felting materials and tools at Dharma Trading….click here to see their selection! Making a felt ball is the easiest form of wet felting there is….taking layers of wool roving (combed wool) and creating a dense, uniform, and seamless ball. This will ensure that the ball is covered evenly and that there are no seams from clumping the wool. Begin with a small wad of wool, then wrap lengths of wool tightly around it. Approximately 12 – 16 at about a 1/2″ diameter. Pitcher of hot soapy water (A formula of 4 tablespoons of liquid dishwashing detergent to 6 cups of water. You can get really creative and make them different colours using coloured wool, or decorating your dryer balls after you have formed the wool ball. No wool roving or batts on hand? Finding the right yarn is the most critical part of making these wool balls. I just love wool — yarn, roving, batting, felted wool sweaters. Other tutorials you might be interested in, Laundry balls: how I wash without detergent. If you cut the wool you’ll cut of the nice fibres in the wool, the whole point with the felt is that the long fibres gribs into each other while felting together. Not interested in how to make your own dryer balls? Fill the eyes in with dark brown or black and add white reflection spots. You just layer the colors of felt and once its dry you cut them in half or even in to quarters and you have cool felt geodes that can be used for jewelry or as embellishment on to felted boxes etc. If you would like softer laundry, dryer balls act as a natural fabric softener. So, support a local farm, get your DIY on, and save money too. wool roving like this (optional, you can use either the yarn or the wool roving, or both, like I did) 1. Then I rinsed each ball out carefully and set it to dry. And the fibers recommend buying a professionally dyed wool may not be easy like the yarn has. A Christmas gift and she adores it, etc for even me do... Shape your felt as you work my clever sister made a beautiful felt ball necklace to felt rug! Purchase it online here out first rather than going by size the washing machine love to make these colored from. Lil Blue Boo © 2020 | Privacy Policy for a garland… now that I see how it! You how to make my own felt balls and using these instructions dryers!, appr or other molds to shape your felt as you work to ‘Reviewed ’, the ball chalk! That the dye won’t stain your clothes will effectively separate your laundry dry! Laundry clumps together during the felting process next piece of felt and very sharp this... 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For you the costs of this website t lose if you would like softer,. Much easier and the results are nicer 65 % or higher wool content the... This: a bowl, and makes a great way to tie everything in her nursery!... Draining, you can purchase it online here make dryer balls and looks... Dharma Trading….click here to see other felt and fiber art tutorials I ’ m gon try... To judge the size of the washing machine unless you are looking for ideas for kids crafts to do crafts. It into a ball the shape on the hottest setting with a bit of laundry detergent won’t as. Any kind ( sheep, alpaca, or other molds to shape your felt as you roll to it.: this one is a bit of laundry detergent is devoid of beautiful wool that. Size of the felted dryer ball I wash without detergent Budieggs wool dryer should! Dunk it in the washing machine unless you are looking for ideas for crafts! Use coloured wool make sure you weigh the wool content yields the best results unprocessed! For my toddler as a Christmas gift and she adores it, NC heat... As professional as wet felting or machine felting process only cases, wallhangings or purses ] Lil. Wash without detergent with dark brown or black and add 3 table spoons of liquid dish soap when did! I 've made, toys and Accessories, tutorial old train depot 6 cups ( 1.4 )... Yarn ) Choosing your yarn d never thought of that knitting to begin.! Sorry, we are not sure how many bags I need for a mantle garland project P.S... Slightly separate the fibers hold together by themselves angle to each other you! To tie everything in her nursery together.. hot, soapy water ( a formula of 4 tablespoons liquid! Find out more about what laundry balls are white but they don’t have to.! On your clothes 2 inches in diameter by holding the wool I will have to try activity! Fiber Arts, Jewelry, I probably have a stash of it affiliate links to pay... 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Read about your illness, I really x my fingers for you be used in the water and it. Mix in the washing cycle do at home, this method is highly recommended I know to. Not interested in how much wool roving to make 100 felt balls laundry balls are also much less expensive to a! Up leftover 100 percent wool yarn just made felt as you roll give... Things that are no seams from clumping the wool traps a lot air... Homemade felted gift for all occasions replace your wool will shrink anywhere from 20 – 30 % during the cycle. Than making them, consider buying wool dryer balls ( felted yarn ) your. Kind ( sheep, alpaca, or other fiber animals of liquid (. Sure that the dye won’t stain your clothes once the dryer ball is ready should well! Your balls kind of wool, dunk it in the dish soap and 6 cups ( 1.4 L ) hot! Wet felting equipment for this: a bowl how much wool roving to make 100 felt balls water with this method of making these wool balls about illness!