A Peak Inside my Portfolio: DIY Felted Cardigan

Even though summer is hard because we're all going on vacations and such, I still get together with my art teaching pals and do some crafting and chatting and really just enjoy each others company. Like I said, it's been awhile since we've gotten together. You can see our last art-making session was during Easter time when we did Ukrainian Eggs, check it out HERE!

This time we all did our own project, just working on whatever we had going at the moment and chatting. Here's a picture of all our finished (well mine isn't quite yet) projects at the end of the day. Love those girls!

So a little bit more about my project. I have been wanting for awhile to do some needle felting on clothing. If you're not sure what needle felting is, you must check it out! It's so much fun and it's a really easy and cool way to personalize your clothing. I decided to add a design to a thrifted black cardigan that I have. Here's how I went about doing that:

1. I used chalk to sketch out the pattern that I wanted to create on my cardigan. Chalk is great because it rubs right off with a damp cloth, making it easy to edit your design as you go.

2. Then I had to decide what colors I wanted to use. I decided to go with some bright, almost primary colors that had a bit of a Aztec feel to them. After deciding on the colors, it's easy to felt them into the existing clothing. Using a felting needle I repeatedly poked the wool fibers into the design where I wanted them.

3. Continue doing this until the areas are all filled up. Be sure to have a foam pad behind your work and don't stab your fingers!

4. After I had the first side of the cardigan finished, I simply used chalk to recreated the design on the other side. I eye-balled it, but I suppose you could bust out the measuring tape and make it exactly correct. I know that's what my engineer husband would do!

5. Fill in the second side the exact same way you did the first one!

6. After the design is all done, get out your iron. Set it to the wool setting. Spritz your felted area with a bit of water and gently iron over it to set your wool felting. Voila! You're done!