Felted Doves - How-To

To make this craft you will need:

• a Piece of Felt
• Some fleece for the wings and to stuff the bird
• beads for the eyes
• a felting needle
• a felting cushion
• some white cotton
• a needle for sewing up the dove
• a needle that will pass through the hole of your bead
• an outline of a dove (you can also use the one below)

First cut out two bird body pieces from the felt

Sew the body up leaving a space on the back of the body (roughly about 2cm wide).

Using some of the fleece, stuff the body and then sew it closed.

Sew on the eyes of the bird by inserting your bead needle from the side of the head and coming out where you would like the first eye to be placed.

Then drive your needle trough the bird head and out onto the other-side where you would like to place your other eye.

Thread your other needle with a length of cotton and inserting your needle in the belly of the bird, go through the body and leaving some tail, go back through the body again to create a hanging possibility for your dove. (before finishing this tie, hold the dove up to make sure your bird will "fly" straight :))

Tie the ends of under the belly and cut.

Take a piece of your fleece for your wings.

It should be wide enough that it fits from the head of the bird until the beginning of the tail.

It should be long enough that when folded in half it will give you the height of the wings.

Place the felt on your working surface and place the dove on the top half of it.

Now fold the other half of felt around the belly of the bird and up on the other side.

Felt into place.

Be sure to leave the fleece looking like wings, so felt around the belly and slightly up each side so that the wings sit flat on the body.

And there you have it, your own felted dove :)
See you next time.
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