Holiday Felted Wool Garland | Tutorial

I hope everyone had a fabulous Holiday!  Mine was filled with food and family and it was lovely. I missed Friday Flair and all your amazing talents and can't wait to see what you've whipped up later this week!

Today, I have an oldie, but a goodie.  We posted this tutorial for how to make a felted wool garland back in September at According to Kelly and I thought I would post it again today just in case you missed it. This is one of my all time favorites!!

There's a lot of buntings and garlands going on in the party world right now, and I thought I would share with all of you how to make a garland out of wool! It's a little more unconventional than your traditional paper garland, and it will definitely last a whole lot longer than paper will (I don't know about your kids, but a paper garland wouldn't last long in my house). Best of all, it's easy and fast!

You'll need:
Wool roving (merino is best)*
Scissors
hand soap
Water… hot and cold
Heavy duty string or twine
A needle for threading the balls onto the string
*You can find wool roving at most any craft store that also sells fabric.

To start, you'll want to take your roving out of the package and cut off the appropriate amount for the size ball you want. 

Roving typically comes in long lengths, so for small felt balls, like the one I'm doing in this tutorial, you'll cut off about 2-2.5 inches. 

Turn on your hot water. You'll want the water to be as hot as you can stand. Take the felt and hold it in your fingers. Squirt a small amount (no larger than the size of a dime) of hand soap in your palm and start to lightly roll the wool around in your palms, coating it with the soap.

Pass your hands through the hot water and continue to roll the wool into a ball. As the ball starts to slip and slide in your palms, pass your hands through the water again to get rid of the excess soap.

Press more and more firmly on the ball as you roll, you'll want to get it as tight as possible! Keep repeating this process of rolling and washing. When the ball has gotten as small as it will get, turn your water to cold and continue to roll the ball under cold water for a few seconds. This shocks the fibers into shrinking as much as possible. Do one last turn of the tap over to hot water and roll the ball again, then one last turn in the cold water.

Set your ball out to dry and start on the next!

Once you have all the felt balls made that you want, thread your needle with a heavy duty string or twine. Thread the balls through and position them how you want. The balls will stay in place, so there's no need to knot them at either end of the ball.

Use your garland to decorate a table, add as a bunting to a cake or cupcake, dress up a gift, whatever! This fun little garland has so many great possibilities!

I'm sooo excited for this week!  I have all kinds of fun Christmas projects to share so make sure to check in each day for another little goodie for the season.