Needle Felted Simple Rose

These roses are only about 1.5-2cm big (less than an inch) and look delightful on their own or as a collection. Turn them into brooches or use them to embellish and accessorise. You could also add a stem to them. It is also possible to scale them up in size of course and why not try different colours too? Most of all, have fun and as you make more and more you will perfect your technique!

Per rose you will need:

- A pinch of Poppy Red New Zealand Merino batts with a complementary colour such as Orange Madder natural dyed New Zealand Merino or Deep Red Fox Variegated Merino.

You can also make pink, yellow or even white roses. I like mixing two colours as it gives it a more real look. For the white ones, you could add a tiny amount of pale pink!

- A pinch of Lichen Green Mountain Sheep batts (or any other green batts).
- Felting needle (#38 medium)
- Felting mat

Here are some more colours for roses you might be inspired by:

Have your two coloured wool batts at the ready (one larger quantity of the red and a smaller of your complementary shade).

Mix the two together by laying them on top of each other and pulling them apart with your thumb and index finger. Keep repeating this process until you have the desired mix. I like to keep it fairly mottled rather than totally mixed into a new colour.

See also our tutorial on how to mix wool.

Tease the wool into an oblong shape and use your medium felting needle to felt it into a flat long shape on your mat. Keep lifting it off the mat to stop it from fastening itself to it. Fold the wispy fibres along the long edge in. You are trying to create a ribbon like shape of about 2cm width.

Once the wool has been felted into the ribbon like strip, pinch the whole shape lengthwise and stab a few times with your needle so that it stays doubled up.

Next turn one end in on itself and felt it down. This will be the centre of the rose.

Then keep rolling the rose up from the centre. Two things are crucial to make a neat looking rose:

1) Make sure you make a tight little ball by rolling it tightly.

2) When rolling the wool around itself, give the wool ribbon a twist occasionally. This way you make a more distinct shape which will look like a rose petal.

If you are familiar with ribbon roses, it will help as it is the same process (This video for making ribbon roses will give you an idea of the technique).

If you find that the rose comes undone before you get to the end of your wool strand/ribbon, either felt it down gently as you go or assess if the wool strand may be too long? Check if the rose is in proportion. If you have too much wool, just tear it to the right length.
Put this rose a side and start on the leaves. Take a pinch of the green wool batts and lay flat onto your felting mat. You will be felting it down as you did with the rose but the shape you are making will be shorter and it will look like a large leaf. You can 'draw' the outline of the leaf with your needle. Felt the inside down and remember to lift the wool off the mat regularly.
Fold the wispy ends in to make a more distinct shape. This shape will become two leaves!
Next stab your needle so that the large leaf shape will get 'pinched' in the centre. Felt this down to establish the shape.
Then felt the leaves onto the back of the rose by stabbing your needle into the green 'pinched' area of the leaves and into the rose. Do not stab into the rose from the top and into the leaf as this will alter the rose shape!


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