Needle Felted Bobble Hat

Main hat: Take 1g of coloured wool batts and flatten into a sheet of about 8x12cm onto your felting mat. With your medium felting needle, stab two straight lines along the long sides and two curved lines at the short sides...

...the outline of the shape that you are ‘drawing’ with your needle should measure about 6x10cm. Then fold the wispy fibres outside the outline onto the inside and felt them down. Keep felting the shape from both sides to make it firm.

Rim: Then take a pinch of a different coloured wool batt and split into half. Lay one half about 1cm overlapping one rounded end and felt down so the felted line is rounded too.

Next fold the contrasting wool round the other side and felt down as on the previous side.

Tip: You can make the rim wider to make the hat taller or to have enough space to turn the rim up.

Repeat on the other end and leave the wispy side edges of the rims unfelted.

Optional: Use a 7-Needle Multi Tool and Brush Mat to speed up and have a finer finish.

Pinch the centre of the main rectangle piece and either felt it down or tie it with thin thread. Then fold it in half so that the pinched part becomes the top of the hat. Felt the main sides together (not the rim yet) very close to the edge.

Do this from both sides only just catching the wispy fibres near the edge. This way you are fusing with a thin seam. Then open the hat up and fold the wispy rim fibres on top of each other and felt down from the inside.

Turn the hat inside out and tidy the rim up by stabbing into it (mind your fingers). If the seam is weak felt this down more now.

If you have a wide enough rim turn this over and felt it down first into the edge and then all of the doubled up rim on itself.

Bobble: Then take a pinch of your third contrasting wool and felt it loosely into a ball of about 2cm in diameter.

Sit the hat upside down on top of the ball and fasten together by stabbing a few times into the hat and the ball.

Once fastened, work from the outside to finish the final size and fasten it on a little better by stabbing into the base of the bobble and the top of the hat.