Needle Felted Name Tags

I was invited to teach a mini class at the local weaver’s and spinner’s guild meeting on Wednesday. I decided to try the needle felted name tag project that Ann had suggested to me. Thanks Ann! It was perfect for a guild meeting because the ladies could all use their name tags for meetings and conventions that they attend.

 

I didn’t do a very good job with the photo taking but you can see the partially finished results. We started with a base of felted wool blankets, scarves or sweaters cut into pieces about 3″x4″.

 

The base wool was covered with whatever color of wool the ladies chose. Each one ended up different colors and they were all pretty quick in needle felting the backgrounds down. The excess wool was wrapped around to the back and needled in to make a nice covered edge.

We then spent a bit of time figuring out what we wanted the lettering of the name to look like. Yarn was used to form the lettering.

 

The hardest part was fitting the name in and not running out of space.

 

As you can see, everyone had a good time using a variety of colors and yarn choices.

Tacking down the yarn with a single needle helps to get the layout. You can always pull it back up if it doesn’t work out. Tara used roving to make “fatter” letters. She was considering whether or not to outline the letters with thin yarn to give it a bit of “splash”.

 

Julie used a felted, fringed scarf and kept the fringe. Didn’t it turn out cool?? To finish off the name tag, you just glue or stitch a pin back on the back side about a third of the way down from the top.

 

And here is Shelley’s name tag. She was going to add a charm or button at the top. She hadn’t quite decided. We had a great time and hopefully they were all inspired to add a bit more felting into their repertoire!