Felting Patterns for Beginners: How to Read Them and When to Ignore Them
4 min read Beginner
What a felting pattern actually contains, why templates must be drawn oversized, and how to adapt any pattern to the wool you have.
A felting pattern is not like a sewing pattern. There are no seam allowances, no grain lines and often no exact measurements, because wool does not behave like cloth. What a good felting pattern gives you is a sequence, a set of proportions and a template — and knowing which of those to follow exactly and which to treat as a suggestion is most of the skill.
The three kinds of felting pattern
1. Sequence patterns (needle felting)
These are essentially instructions: make a 4 cm ball, make a 2.5 cm ball, join them, add ears. There is no template because the shapes are three-dimensional and built freehand.
Follow: the order of construction and the relative proportions.
Adapt freely: absolute sizes. Every measurement in a needle felting pattern is a ratio in disguise.
2. Templates and resists (wet felting)
A flat shape, usually cut from thin foam or plastic, that the wool is laid around. The resist stops the two sides felting to each other, so what comes out is a hollow three-dimensional object — a bag, a slipper, a vessel.
Follow: the shape and the proportions exactly.
Adapt: the size, because it must be scaled up for your own shrinkage.
3. Flat-piece patterns
Outlines for shapes cut from finished felt, or felted flat and then assembled. The closest thing to a sewing pattern, and the easiest to follow literally.
The rule everyone gets wrong: templates must be oversized
A resist has to be considerably larger than the finished object, because the felt shrinks around it. How much larger depends on your wool and how hard you full — typically 30–40% in each direction.
For a bag intended to finish 30 cm wide, the resist needs to be roughly 45 cm wide. A pattern that does not state its shrinkage assumption is telling you to make a shrinkage sample first, whether it says so or not.
This is the single most common reason a first felted bag comes out the size of a purse.
What a good pattern tells you
Before starting, check that the pattern specifies:
- Wool type and micron count, not just "wool". A pattern written for 19-micron merino will not behave with 30-micron Romney.
- Weight of wool, in grams.
- Number of layers and their directions.
- Finished dimensions and, ideally, the layout dimensions.
- The shrinkage rate assumed.
A pattern missing the first three is a rough guide rather than a pattern, and you should plan to make a sample before committing good wool to it.
Scaling a template to your own shrinkage
- Make a shrinkage sample with the exact wool and layer count from the pattern.
- Calculate your rate: a 30 cm sample finishing at 19 cm is 37%.
- Divide each target dimension by (1 − your rate). For 30 cm at 37%: 30 ÷ 0.63 ≈ 48 cm.
- Draw the template at those dimensions, keeping the pattern's proportions.
Remember that shrinkage differs between directions if you roll unevenly, so measure both on your sample.
Making your own templates
Thin foam underlay, sold for laminate flooring, is the standard material — cheap, flexible, cuts with scissors and survives repeated soaking. Thick plastic sheeting and even several layers of bubble wrap also work.
Round every corner. Sharp points in a resist produce weak, thin spots where the wool struggles to wrap.
Where to find patterns
Free patterns are widely shared by felters on craft blogs, in fibre-craft forums and by wool suppliers, who often publish them alongside their fibre. Library craft sections tend to have better-tested patterns than the internet, because a book editor made someone check them.
Two things to be aware of. Patterns are the intellectual property of whoever wrote them: making one for yourself or as a gift is always fine, selling finished items made from someone's pattern often is not, and republishing the pattern itself never is. Check what the designer states. And a free pattern with no photographs of the intermediate stages is usually harder to follow than a paid one with them.
Write down your own
The most useful pattern collection you will ever have is the one you write yourself. When a project works, record:
- Wool type, colour and weight used
- Layout dimensions and finished dimensions
- Number of layers and their directions
- Anything that went wrong and what you did about it
Staple the note to your shrinkage sample. Six months later, when you want to make the same thing again, that scrap of paper is worth more than any book.
Good first patterns
- Felted soap — no template at all, and the fastest way to learn how felt behaves.
- Felt balls — no pattern, pure technique.
- Flowers — flat shapes where precision genuinely does not matter.
- A simple pouch or phone case — your first resist, small enough that a mistake costs 30 g of wool.
Start with the pouch before the bag. The techniques are identical and the failure is much cheaper.
Frequently asked questions
How much bigger should a felting template be than the finished piece?
Typically 30 to 40% larger in each direction, because the felt shrinks around the resist as it is worked. A bag intended to finish 30 cm wide needs a resist of roughly 45 cm.
Can I sell items made from someone else's felting pattern?
Often not. The pattern is the designer's intellectual property and permission varies from one designer to the next. Making one for yourself or as a gift is always fine, and republishing the pattern itself never is, so check what the designer states.
What should a good felting pattern tell me?
The wool type and micron count, the weight of wool in grams, the number of layers and their directions, the finished dimensions and the shrinkage rate it assumes. A pattern missing the first three is a rough guide rather than a pattern.
What can I use to make a resist?
Thin foam underlay sold for laminate flooring is the standard choice: cheap, flexible, cuts with scissors and survives repeated soaking. Thick plastic sheeting or several layers of bubble wrap also work. Round every corner, whatever you use.
