Ask Wendi: Embroidering on Felt

I've gotten a few questions lately about embroidering on felt - and I'm going to answer them all here today.

These are smallish shapes. Do I transfer the pattern, hoop them and stitch, and then cut them out?

Well - I buy pretty expensive felt (there's no point embroidering it if it's going to get all pilled and nasty-looking the first time someone touches it) and I don't like to waste any of it. That means no excess for hooping. You don't really need to hoop felt anyway - and it's hard to get the vrimp marks out when you do. It's stiff enough to embroider easily without a hoop. Just be careful not to pull your stitches too tight.

My method is to transfer the pattern, cut it out, and then stitch.

How do you transfer your pattern to felt? You can't trace through this stuff, and any pen or pencil tends to lift the fibers.

I always use one of my iron-on transfer pens for felt. In my experience the ink transfers beautifully to those bright felts I keep buying. Which brings me to. . .

Where do you find wool felt in such gorgeous colors?

I get mine from Heather Bailey's shop. She has a tremendous range of colors and she's always adding new ones. She carries wool blends and bamboo blends - which I still must try. I love bamboo yarn, so I'm guessing the felt will be nice too. Like I said, the good stuff can be pretty pricey, but if you sign up for her mailing list she sends out occasional coupons. My philosophy is - if I'm going to spend hours making something, I want to make it out of the best materials and make it to last.

Happy stitching! (By the way - that picture up at the top is a close up of some of the blocks from the Felt Blocks Embroidery Pattern. Those were so much fun to stitch!)

Got any other sewing or embroidery questions? Send them to me here.

Happy Wednesday!

Best,
Wendi

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