Felted Ladybug

Yesterday Mexymoo (AKA Marianne) and I had a heeelloooo day....( yeah, I just made that up ) Not the bit about us hanging out... just that phrase.. uh. erm. yup...

So, we chatted and caught up on all the particulars and then we tried out some felting from this super cute book she has. It's a nice picture of Marianne.. not me.. hehe

We made a ladybug... which we were a little unsure of at first but eventually decided he is cute :) Especially next to his knitted ladyfriend (I just decided it was a he and the other a girl...)

Instructions as I understood them - 

Step 1: Take fluffy stuff (wool) and make a pile, folding in top and sides until you get a ball like shape.

Step 2: Poke it lots of times with a barbed needle (probably called a felting needle)

Step 3: Avoid fingers, needle sharp

Step 4: Take felted ball and roll it between palms to make it round ... then flatten so it's got a flat bottom. At this stage you will probably work out that you didn't do the first 2 steps that well, and ignored step 3 and need to stab the ball a lot more times.

Step 5: Follow steps 1 through 4 to a smaller black pile of wool. Make sure you get less than the red amount or you will have an out of proportion lady bug.... Then stab it some more to attach it to the body

Step 6: Take small amounts of black stuff and add in a line on the middle of red body, then add some dots. These can be placed where ever you like... probably on top of the body and not on the head.

Step 7: Figure out something for the eyes and test it with pins before sewing. Or you can leave this pins as they make a lovely alien version of the ladybug... Pair with smaller ladybug... then wait for little baby ladybugs.

Step 8: Sew on eyes if you think the pins are a little dangerous and you want a regular ladybug rather than the alien variety.

Step 9: Look at all the other cute projects you can attempt (but probably won't because you don't own the book, or any of the stuff to do it with!)

Please note, this tutorial is not really to be taken seriously... ok? But you could buy the book coz there are a lot of cute things in it! Just watch your fingers...... and don't give up, the felting process takes time.