Felted Mushrooms: Needle Felted Toadstools and Ornaments

Felted mushrooms are the ideal second project. They are two simple shapes joined together, they look convincing almost immediately, and they scale from a 2 cm ornament to a 20 cm doorstop without changing the method.

What you need

• Core wool for the stem and cap interior, 10–15 g per mushroom
• Red, brown or cream wool for the cap surface
• White or cream for the stem surface and gills
• 38 and 40 gauge needles, foam pad or brush mat

The cap

1. Wind a ball of core wool, roughly twice the finished cap diameter, and needle it until firm. The method is the same as needle felting a ball.
2. Flatten one side. Press it against the mat and needle straight down into that face repeatedly. As the wool compacts, the opposite side domes.
3. Hollow the flat side. Stab repeatedly into the centre of the flat face — the surrounding wool rises around the depression and the cap acquires its overhanging rim.
4. Firm the dome with a 40 gauge needle, working at a shallow angle for a smooth surface.
5. Add the colour. Lay a thin veil of red or brown over the dome and needle it down. Two thin veils beat one thick one.

Cap shape sets the species. Shallow and wide reads as a field mushroom, tall and domed as a fly agaric, conical as a chanterelle.

The stem

1. Roll core wool into a firm cylinder, slightly wider at the base.
2. Needle all over, rotating constantly, until it is dense enough that it will not squash between your fingers.
3. Keep the top end loose and fluffy — do not felt it. That loose fibre is the join.
4. Wrap a thin layer of white or cream over the felted section.

A stem thinner than about 8 mm will not hold a cap up. If you want a slender mushroom, put a short piece of wire down the middle before wrapping — see wire armature for needle felting.

The join

This is where mushrooms fail, and it is easily avoided.

1. Push the loose fibre at the top of the stem into the hollow under the cap.
2. Needle those fibres up into the cap, from several angles, going deep. Surface tacking will not hold.
3. Work around the base of the stem where it meets the cap, tightening the junction.
4. Lay a thin veil of wool across the join and needle it down to blend the seam away.

Test by holding the cap and gently swinging the mushroom by its stem. If there is any give, needle more.

Gills

The detail that turns a shape into a mushroom, and the one most people skip.

• Needled lines: with a 40 gauge needle, work shallow radial lines from the stem outwards. The wool compacts along each line and the ridges between stand proud.
• Laid strands: pull very fine strands of contrasting wool, arrange them in a fan from centre to rim, and tack each one down at both ends.

Even at a glance, the underside is what people look at.

Spots

For a fly agaric, roll tiny balls of white wool between damp fingers and needle each one onto the red cap, working around the edge so the middle stays domed. Vary the sizes — identical spots look printed.

Twelve to fifteen on a 4 cm cap is about right.

Variations

• Ornaments — small mushrooms with a thread loop needled into the top of the cap. They sit naturally among felted Christmas ornaments.
• Garland — eight or nine on a cord, alternating sizes and colours.
• Mushroom house — a large cap on a fat hollow stem, with a needled door and windows.
• A cluster — three mushrooms of different heights joined at the base on a felted mound with a little green moss wool. Far more effective displayed than one alone.
• Wet felted caps — felt a small bowl shape over a resist for a hollow cap. Method in wet felting a bowl.
• Pincushion — a large firm cap on a wide stem, weighted with rice.

Making a batch

Work in rotation: wind all the cores first, then bring each one along a stage at a time. Six mushrooms take perhaps twice as long as one, not six times, and a group with varied heights and cap shapes looks far better than a matched set.

For more small projects in the same spirit, see needle felting ideas for beginners.