5 Tips For Sewing With Felt For Beginners You Need To Know

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INSIDE: The best tips for sewing felt for beginners, from what needle for sewing felt, what thread, to how to cut felt and how to wash felt.

For a while, you’ve been planning to start a new sewing project using felt.

You’ve been gathering materials, colorful felt sheets and matching thread. You’ve gathered enough inspiration, as a matter a fact you have seen some breathtaking pieces, and you know exactly how you want it to look like.

… so you finally you started sewing… but … seems like your sewing machine is resisting and is determined to make your project failed from the start.

Your thread is constantly jamming and breaking, stitches are skipping, seam tensions are playing a silly game that you don’t understand. Sewing felt together doesn’t exactly go how you planned.

So finally, when your needle breaks you call it a day.

…

To avoid all this stress continue reading and find out basic tips how to sew felt.

Felt is a pretty good material for beginners and great for sewing projects for kids. It doesn’t fray, you can cut it easily and a variety of colors and patterns are available to fit any DIY project.

But, some basic things about sewing with felt will help complete your new sewing project without frustration, either for sewing felt on a sewing machine or sewing felt by hand.

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Best sewing tips – sewing with felt for beginners

1. NEEDLES FOR SEWING FELT

For sewing felt by hand medium weight hand sewing needle is a good choice. For sewing felt on a sewing machine, a medium-sized needle 70/10 or 80/12 will work well for regular felt. Thicker felt or more than two layers will require 90/14 needle. But be careful, a thicker needle may leave holes. I recommend playing by ear.

2. THREAD FOR SEWING FELT TOGETHER

Embroidery floss works great for hand stitching, especially for appliquéing felt. Embroidery thread is composed of 6 individual threads, which can be thick for some projects. I recommend separating it in 2 or 3 strands for optimal look. But it’s a personal preference depending on your project.
For the sewing machine, I recommend an all-purpose polyester or cotton thread. You can use quilting thread too.

3. CUTTING FELT

Felt is pretty easy to cut with rotary cutter or sharp fabric scissors, until it comes to cutting small pieces. Luckily, there is a simple trick that can help you easily cut felt in any shape or miniature size and save you tons of time of this tedious work.

4. TRANSFERRING PATTERN ONTO FELT

There are several ways of transferring patterns onto felt, from self-adhesive fusible web to transparent tape. Learn more ways of transferring patterns and pick one or more that fits your project the best. I will often use Freezer paper for smaller pieces (yes, kitchens freezer paper) .

5. WASHING FELT

Normally felt doesn’t need to be prewashed as the fabric. Sometimes your felt projects will need a wash, especially if you are making toys for kids. Then hand wash in cold (or lukewarm) water with gentle detergent is the safest way. Avoid putting felt into the washer and dryer to prevent shrinking and pillage.

6. RIGHT SEWING MACHINE

Last but not least, the right sewing machine can transform your DIY project-making into a much easier and more enjoyable experience. If you use a machine that’s not suited for your specific project, you may encounter frustration and may even give up without understanding why things aren’t working. I’ve reviewed a couple of sewing machines for easy crafting to help you choose the best one based on your project type, and I hope you find it helpful!

In the end, where possible, choose the best quality felt, which is usually made from wool, as it is generally easier to work with and softer than acrylic felt, but more expensive.

I hope these sewing tips and tricks for beginners will make your life easier and help you create some breathtaking felt projects for your kids.