Needle Felting for Beginners- Macarons

One of my goals with the new year was to try out new crafting techniques that I haven’t tried before. I have already tried paint marbling and loved it and now I am trying my hand at felting.

At first, I tried to wet felt in which you use hot soapy water to felt wool roving, but it turned out to be trickier that I thought it would be. So then I tried needle felting with the help of a multi-needle tool and it was so much easier! So much so that I had grand ideas to create this 3D DIY felted macaron garland.

And you know what, it turned out super cute and was actually pretty easy to do. It looks adorable strung up on my bar cart for Valentine’s Day, but would also look great in a kids room or above a sweets table for a party.

And once you try felting, you can try your hand at different shapes to create a custom garland for any theme.

Materials:
-wool roving (about 1 ounce will make two 1″ macarons, so use that measurement to get enough for your garland in any colors you want)
–needle felting mat
–Clover multi felting needle
-white roving yarn
-baker’s twine
-embroidery needle

Step 1: Begin by cutting a 48″ long piece of colored roving and spread out the roving to get the fibers loose and flatten it out a bit instead of having it in a strand.

Step 2: Roll the roving up into a tight ball shape. You want to vary the direction of the roving while rolling it up so that it doesn’t end up like a cinnamon roll but more of a uniform ball shape. Don’t worry if it is slightly misshapen or has lumps; the needle felting will make it more uniform.

Step 3: Place the ball of roving on your felting mat and use the needle tool to prick the roving over and over again. As you do this, the roving will start to bind together to create a solid ball shaped piece. Since we are making macarons, use the needles to prick the roving into an disc like macaron shape. Don’t forget to turn the piece over and felt it from all sides.

Step 4: Once you have it in a macaron shape, cut a 6″ piece of white roving yarn and tie it around the center of the macaron to create the “filling”. Then prick this roving yarn with the needles to felt it onto the macaron. Once you have felted the two pieces together, you can trim off the excess yarn.

Step 5: Now repeat the macaron making process for all your roving colors. Once you get the hang of it, they come together fairly quickly. I think it ended up taking me about 5-10 minutes per macaron.

Step 6: The last step is to thread the baker’s twine onto the embroidery needle and stitch through the top of each macaron to thread them into a garland. Tie off the ends and it is ready to hang.

I promise if you try needle felting, you will get hooked. It is such a great stress reliever and you can create so many different shapes such as hearts, rainbows, or stars. The more you play around with it, you can even get into more complex shapes like little animals. Happy felting! xo. Kara