How to Make a Felt Toy

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How to Make a Felt Toy

What is felt?

Before making a felt toy it’s best to understand what felt is. Felt is a man-made material that is made by compressing and matting fibres together. Huge amounts of pressure are applied so that the fibres are permanently interwoven together and the felt is formed. Felt can be made from natural fibres such as wool, or synthetic fibres such as acrylic or rayon. It can also be a blend of several different types of fibre which is quite common.

What type of felt should I use?

There are many different types of felt of varying quality. The type of felt that you use will be dependent on what you are wanting to achieve from your soft toy.

Budget v's Quality. The Cheaper Option

Your budget will also be a factor. Generally, 100% acrylic felt is the cheapest felt to use and is readily available online and in craft stores. It comes in a wide selection of colours and can have printed patterns on it. However, a word of caution, this type of felt does not have the softest handle and it will pill (bobble) more easily and will not last well. Therefore, if you are making something that you are investing a lot of time and energy into, acrylic felt may be a bit of let down for you. However, if you just want to make a quick, cheap project, this is probably the felt for you.

Budget V's Quality. The Better Quality Option

If you want a better quality felt that has a softer handle that won’t pill, I would recommend using a wool blend felt which will give you a much nicer quality end product. If you would like to read some more detailed information about which felt to choose for different types of sewing projects, click here.

What type of toy shall I make?

There are lots of lovely decisions that you need to make before you decide on which type of toy to make. This is an enjoyable part of the process choosing fabric, colour, style etc. Be lead by your heart and not your head with these decisions. Choose a toy that you fall in love with so that when you spend time sewing it, you will enjoy it even more. If you want to look through some of our felt toy patterns, click here.

Hand or machine sew?

Decide what kind of look you want to go for. Hand sewn toys have a hand finished look and machine sewn toys can have a look more similar to a shop bought item. Machine sewing is quicker and requires knowledge of using a sewing machine. Hand sewing requires less prior knowledge and simply learning whip stitch is all that’s needed to get going.

Hand Sewing

Hand sewing will take longer to complete the project but that is part of the joy of it. It is almost like a meditation which makes it so relaxing. If you are a complete beginner, it may be easier to choose a hand sewing project initially so that you can see if you like it and then you may want to progress onto a machine sewn project at a later date once you have bought a sewing machine.

Perfect Beginners Felt Toy

We have the perfect felt toy pattern for a beginner; a mini felt bear. Simply click here and you can subscribe and receive the free pattern immediately so that you can get going straight away with this really simple felt toy sewing project.

Digital or paper pattern?

There are now many soft toy patterns that can be bought as digital downloads. This means that you will be emailed a file to download and you print the pattern off yourself. They are really easy to use and can be reprinted as many times as you like so you can reuse the same pattern multiple times.

Many Small Business Use Digital Patterns

Digital patterns are often produced by small independent businesses so buying from them supports small businesses. Paper patterns are produced by the larger companies like Simplicity and have patterns that you cut out of tissue paper so you do not need to print them out yourself. If you would like some more detailed information about printed and digital patterns, click here.

What kind of stuffing?

Toy stuffing is mostly polyester and can be called toy stuffing, polyester stuffing or hollow fibre stuffing. They are all very similar and will all be fine to stuff toys. Sometimes if you have a large toy to stuff you can use small fabric or felt scraps but it is better to put them in the middle and surround them with toy stuffing, otherwise, they give a lumpy finish.

Add Weight to your Toy

If you want to add some weight to your toy, try adding some dried rice (not cooked rice) inside the toy. It can be wrapped up inside something like a very lightweight scrap of fabric or a piece of an old pair of stockings/tights to stop the rice from escaping.