How to Needle Felt at Home ?

Needle felting is an easy craft to learn. You just need a few basic tools and a simple tutorial, and then you are good to go. Start off by learning to create basic shapes, and once you have mastered those, you can experiment around with more complicated shapes and details. Remember, while learning the basics is not difficult, becoming an expert takes a lot of practice, an eye for detail, and a great amount of patience, but the result will make everything worth it! 
Essential Supplies
These are the essential supplies you will need for needle felting:
Wool
The best wool for felting is roving, tops, or batts (before the fiber is spun into yarn) derived from 100% animal fiber, specifically sheep wool like Merino, Shetland, Corriedale, etc. Any of these forms of wool will suffice. For beginners, it is usually easier to work with wool roving of Corriedale or Merino. 
Felting needles
As already described above, felting needles are special needles that have angled notches along the sides to help grab the wool. These needles come in various sizes and thicknesses. The sizes are determined by a number. The higher the number, the finer and more pointed the needle. Finer needles are useful for smaller or more detailed felt projects. They will not leave holes in your finished felt. On the contrary, the larger needles are useful for bigger projects or working on larger surfaces that do not require many details but will leave holes. 
Foam pad
The purpose of foam padding is to provide a base for working with the wool. As you stab the needles through the wool, they will go into the foam padding instead of your table or your body parts. This will not only protect you and your furniture but also the delicate needles that are prone to break down. 
Finger Guard
Experienced needle felters, may not need finger guards but for beginners, they are highly recommended. Put your finger protectors on because these needles are awfully sharp and wickedly painful when they stab!
The Process
Once you’ve gathered all the basic supplies, the next thing to do is decide on what you want to make. For beginners, start with something simpler, such as something that has a round shape since it is an easier shape to felt. 

Take a wad of wool, the size most appropriate for the object you are creating. If you are just starting out, you should start with less wool than you actually require. 

Then, add small amounts to it one at a time. It is because once the wool has felted, it is easier to add some than take some away.

Start with the core or central component of your felted object so that you can add other features to it later. To begin, roll up your wool and shape it close to the body of the core component you are making. 

For instance, if you are making an apple, roll up your wool to sort of a round shape. Similarly, if you are making a banana, you can roll up your wool to make it resemble an oblong shape.  

Now place the wool onto your foam pad, then take your felting needle and start poking the wool continuously with the needle. When you poke the wool up and down, the tiny notches on the needle will interlock the fibers together. 

To avoid breaking the needle, always poke the wool in the same direction and at the same angle. Do not put your needle in and twist or turn it. 

As a starter, you might break a few needles, which is expected, but the important thing is for you to learn and get the feel of needle felting. Keep moving and turning your wool so that don’t needle felt in only one place. 

Squeeze slightly in between the poking to get a feel of how firm the wool has become. Keep repeating this poking action enough times and you'll end up with a firmer, denser wad of wool that is less fluffy and smaller than what you started out with. 

Once the wool has become firmer and you are sure it won’t fall apart, your core component is done. So, you will need to add details to it. Start felting the details that you want to add, and leave their edges ragged so that you have enough fiber to attach them to the core component later. Now, take the ragged edge of the piece you want to attach, and using the needle, poke the two pieces together. 

In this way, you create a felted sculpture using the needle felting technique. It’s a pretty fun process, and you’ll be amazed to see how the wool begins to shape up as you apply layer after layer of fiber to it. An interesting thing about needle felting is that felt can be shaped into almost any shape you can imagine. So experiment and see what you can make out of it! Additionally, whenever you learn new techniques or refine your felting skills, you can always come back to improvise on your completed projects.

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