https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/felted-monkey • Posted by Pramodini Arela
I recently bought a kit for felting beginners and have really fallen in love with this craft. I had a bunch of extra left over from the kit so I made this monkey.
I recently bought a kit for felting beginners and have really fallen in love with this craft. I had a bunch of extra left over from the kit so I made this monkey.
FELT A BALL FOR THE HEAD. Tear off enough wool to make a good sized ball, keeping in mind that the finished ball will be smaller than the amount you tore off. Place the wool on the styrofoam and using the felting needle, stab it repeatedly. It will become flat, so you will have to keep folding it over on itself and turning it around to make a ball shape. It doesn't have to be perfect because you can adjust it with your fingers. Keep adding wool if you want it to be bigger and stop when it is hard to pull wool off. Then you will know it is dense enough.
FELT A SMALLER BALL FOR THE BODY. tear off more wool and repeat the same process as above to make the body. For me, the head is roughly double the body.
ATTACH THE HEAD TO THE BODY. Place the smaller ball roughly in the center of the bigger one and attach it to the bigger one. The best way I find is to gently poke around the perimeter several times and then poke around the ball to make a firmer attachment. Be careful not to poke your fingers! You can readjust the shapes of the balls with your fingers.
FELT LEGS. Tear off some wool and roll it between your fingers to make a sausage shape. Begin felting it. Once it begins to take shape, hold it against your head/body to gauge how long or thick you want your legs to be. Felt another one.
FELT THE ARMS. Repeat the same as step 4 except make them a little shorter and thinner than the legs.
ATTACH STOMACH. Take a little tuft of contrasting wool and place it in the center of the front of the body. Stab around the perimeter make a circle/oval shape. Then, felt around in the middle to attach firmly.
should look like this when finished.
ATTACH THE BASE FOR THE FACE. Take a larger tuft than the stomach piece and place it on the face. Start poking around the perimeter creating an elongated oval. I suggest starting at the base, then up both sides to end with the top.
MONKEY-FY THE FACE. After the base shape is created, make it look more like a monkey's face. First, about the center of the top, pull only the contrasting wool down into a "V" to create two equal hill. Poke on either side of the V to secure. Then, starting around the middle of the sides, pull in the make a "V". Round the top "hill". Repeat on the other side. It should end up looking like the picture.
CREATE THE PROTRUDING MONKEY MAW. Grab a tuft of wool and roll it between your hands to make a thick sausage. Place it on the face. It should be about the size of the lower half of the face. Starting at the bottom. Poke it into the base you already created and up around the sides. The top should stop in the middle of the face. Secure by poking around the middle. Add more if you want it to protrude more.
ADD EYES. Take a tiny bit of black wool and roll it into a ball between your fingers. Place it inside the "hill" of the face and felting. Use the same technique of beginning with the border and then moving in. Repeat for the other eye.
FELT THE TAIL. Pull a medium sized tuft of wool and roll it between your hands, making an elongated sausage. Then felt away. You will have to turn it continuously while you felt to keep it from flattening out. Then felt it to the body.
FELT EARS. Felt two equal disks of wool. To make it more disk-like, pinch the ears between your fingers and felt along the perimeter.
TWO DIFFERENT EARY TYPES. If you want ears like the dark brown monkey, add contrasting circles of wool like you did with the stomach area. If you want it more like the camel brown monkey, pinch the ear in half and felt along the bottom area to make it curved.
FELT THE EARS TO THE HEAD. The ears should be about level with the two "V"'s on the sides.
ATTACH THE LEGS TO THE BODY. Place the legs where you want them and give it a few preliminary stabs to hold it. Then adjust if need be. Continue felting until it holds fast.
REPEAT STEP 6 FOR THE ARMS.
ADD FACIAL FEATURES. For the dark brown monkey, take two tiny balls of of black and felt it for nostrils. For the camel brown monkey, take a thin roll of black and make a V with it. Then add another tiny roll for the middle and lips. Try to make them as thin as possible.
CLEAN UP ANY UNDEFINED AREAS. You can sharpen features by running the needle along small sections and pushing in. This will catch stray fibers and make your lines sharper. YOu can also adjust any uneven features like the eyes for the two hills by pulling out or pushing in wool and tucking in.