Felted Wool Birds Nest Tutorial

This is my first tutorial. It popped into my head the other day (in the wee hours of the morn, to be precise), and I just can't wait to share it with you crafty wool lovers out there! :)

I have been working with felted wool sweaters for some time now. And I am completely enthralled with the whole process....first finding the "perfect sweater" (probably useless to anyone but me) at my local thrift store, bringing it home and popping it in the washing machine on "hot", laying it flat to dry, seeing the final result, and then dreaming up cozy, useful items to make it into!

Ok, so maybe little felted nests aren't "useful" per se ....but they sure are cute!

What do you need?

1 wool sweater..."felted", as described in the above paragraph
thread
needle
sewing machine (optional)

Here are the step by step instructions...

1. Cut the arm off your sweater and into about 3 inch sections (I had enough length for 3).


2. Hold them upright in a circle shape and trace around them onto paper, leaving about 1/2 inch around for seam allowance.


3. Pin the paper to the felted sweater and cut around it. Cut one circle for every "tube" you have.



4. Sew the circles to the bottom of the tubes (right sides together). They will look like this...



5. Cut a fringe around the top of the nests about 1 inch deep, and about 1/4 inch wide. I left one of my nests "fringeless", just for variety. :)



6. Using hot water and liquid laundry soap, carefully "squish" the nests to give them a more "felty" and soft appearance. Rinse.

7. Lay on a towel to dry.


8. Place your decorated eggs in them to display! These eggs are "naturally decorated" by our Auracana chickens!