The Felting machine

I only found out about felting machines about 2 years ago. Once I had used one and seen it in action, I had to buy it. Luckily they are not as expensive as an ordinary sewing machine. The hours of enjoyment that this machine has brought to my life is immeasurable! 

I have made a video about the machine and showing just a few little examples of what it can do. If you have any interest in doing your own textile art I really do encourage you to try out this machine. The only limitation it has is that it is only for flat felting. So if you are making something 3D, then you will need to make the components and then felt those together using your standard hand felting needle, for example make individual flower petals with the machine and then felt those together by hand. For the rest of it, you can securely mess together fibers of all different types of fabrics.

The needles have barbs on them, just like hand felting needles. For this reason I find it best to felt onto woven fabrics, like cotton or denim. If your are doing a design with a lot of felting then I would definitely recommend an open weave cotton. If your fabric is too tightly woven then the repetitive needling can damage the background fabric and cause holes.

One last thing to add, a lot of textile artists use the back of the fabric as their art work. So don’t forget to look at both sides of your fabric as you are working and decide which is best for the effect you are trying to create.

To see the video I posted on YouTube, please click on this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y5NNsdO6Dg&t=12s