Top 10 Best Felt Making classes, courses, learnings kits and gifts in the UK

Everybody looks great in a woolly jumper and this little felted woollen planter won't scratch your surfaces! This kit provides you with sufficient merino wool tops to create a small felt vessel - think tea cup sized. It also includes some of the materials and some of the equipment you need. Any other equipment you will be able to find around your home and a sheet of hacks will be included in your kit. You'll learn how to layer and mix fibres. What a resist is and the best materials to make one from. How to control shrinkage, how to shape your vessel and where to find out about felting history.

All the materials plus some of the equipment, Plus a link and password to the step by step video. During checkout you'll be asked what colour of pre-felt you'd like for your background - natural, black, blue or plaster. I'll pack this together with a selection of pre-felt pieces in a variety of colours and sizes, an A4 sheet of tracing paper, fine net, chunk of olive oil soap and a sheet of bubble wrap (if you haven’t got a large enough piece waiting for recycling) and post the kit off to you. If you'd like I can also signpost you to various inspiration to get you started, just get in touch. To make your felt collage you'll use sharp scissors to cut and place different colours of pre-felt atop an A4* size pre-felt background (or two A5*). Once your design is complete you'll use wet felt making techniques to bring your cut pre-felt together into the finished piece without the need for glue or a single stitch! Once it is dry, if you'd like, you can embellish it with stitch or beads. Or pop it straight into a frame and hang it on your wall.

Be inspired by Jim Ede's pebble displays at Kettles Yard and land artists Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long. Display your pebbles on a table in a bowl on a shelf or a book case or thread them onto a linen string to create a window/wall hanging for your bathroom or elsewhere in your home. This kit provides you with sufficient wool tops, wool roving, acrylic filling to create 5 natural coloured stones between 4-10cm in diameter or 10 tiny pebbles for a wall hanging. It also includes a chunk of olive oil soap, a needle felting needle and a length of linen yarn. You will also be provided with a link to a comprehensive video showing how to create the pebbles/stones.

A ‘Percher Hat’ is a delightful hat which is small enough to simply ‘perch’ on the edge of the head. This is the typical style of hat which you’ll find in the Sahar Millinery collections. Often, percher hats look quite vintage - akin to the pillbox hats of the 50s or structured beret hats of the 40s. However, depending on how you trim / style your hat - it could also look completely contemporary. There is a variety of blocks (ie shapes) available (pillbox, button, beret etc). If you like the idea of doing the felt class, but would rather block a ‘full’ hat, there is also the option of making a cloche (ie 1920s shape) or trilby hat. As you book, Sahar will ask you what shape you’d like to make as the blocks are available on a first come first served basis (typically one hat shape per person). She will also provide you with a colour chart so you can order the felt colour you’d like to use. At the end of the class, each participant will have one new hat to take away with them, and gained an insight into the world of millinery - it’s materials, techniques, and how trimmings can drastically alter the look and feel of a hat. This class is suitable for all levels. Basic sewing knowledge is helpful but not essential.

You'll use scissors to cut/place different colours of pre felt atop a maximum A3 size pre-felt background. Then you'll use wet felting techniques to bring everything together to form your final pieces of work. Depending on the complexity of what you make you may have time to make more than one piece. You can use abstract Bauhaus imagery as inspiration or bring your own. A relaxed workshop taking place at Heather's home studio in Camberwell fuelled by plenty of home made cake and teas. A maximum of four participants, means these workshops provide everybody with plenty of time for one on one attention. Heather always aims for sessions to be flexible to individual participants needs. This workshop uses wet felt making techniques to bring your cut pre-felt together into the finished piece. It's a simple process (once you know how) made up of a series of repetitive actions. Many people find it relaxing and some a stress buster. But, the final stages of of felt making are quite vigorous and very hands on. If you have arthritis in your hands you may find parts of the process challenging. That being said it’s not stopped anybody before and Heather is very happy to help you with vigorous parts of the process. Allergies to cats or indeed wool? Please note Heather has three cats (they’ll be elsewhere in the house during the workshops). Antihistamines are available but her workshops may not be for you.

This Live online version of my pre-felt workshop needs a minimum of TWO people to run and for me to post you a kit; please bear this in mind when booking. Please message me if you're looking to join a group. On this online workshop you'll use sharp scissors to cut and place different colours of pre-felt atop an A4* size pre-felt background (or two A5*). Once your design is complete we’ll use wet felt making techniques to bring your cut pre-felt together into the finished piece without the need for glue or a single stitch! Exactly what is pre-felt? It's partially processed felt, somewhere between the loose fluffy wool fibres and fully fused felt fabric. It differs from craft felt in that it needs to be further worked to create a finished product. Pre-felt’s "part cooked" state, it's propensity to be cut into clean crisp shapes coupled with its tendency to better keep its shape during processing make pre-felt perfect to use to create collage style imagery. In your kit you’ll receive a selection of pre-felt pieces in various colours and sizes plus the A4 background, an A4 sheet of tracing paper, net, chunk of olive oil soap and a sheet of bubble wrap (if you haven’t got a large enough piece waiting for recycling). Once you’ve booked you’ll need to contact me to let me know what colour background you want to use (a choice of three: natural, blue or plaster). I can also signpost you to various inspiration to get you started. Developing the pre-felt into felt is made up of a series of repetitive actions. Many people find these relaxing and some a stress buster. But, the final stages of wet felting can be quite vigorous and is very hands on. If you have arthritis or a similar condition in your hands you may find parts of the process more challenging. This does not mean you will not be able to undertake this workshop, just that it may take you a little longer to fully felt your work. Please note during the wet felting process your work will shrink. Pre-felt tends to shrink less than handmade wet felting. By how much varies considerably for lots of reasons including the structure of the pre-felt and the technique of the maker. I find a general rule of thumb is between 5-10%. These figures rise to 10-30% for completely hand made wet felted work.

This private Live online version of my 3D wet felting workshop needs a minimum of three people to run and for me to post you kits; please bear this in mind when booking. It takes a bit longer than the in person workshop; about 3 and a half hours. But I also recommend allowing for a 15 minute break half way through. It could be run over a couple of afternoons or evenings. Please message me if you're looking to join a group. On this workshop you’ll use a variation of 2D wet felting to create a small vessel/planter. Heather will post you a kit with the materials and some of the equipment you need. Any other equipment you will be able to find around your home. The pre-class notes explains all. On the workshop you’ll be guided through how to use the resist, the layering and felting techniques to make and shape your work. Once you've mastered this you can make slippers, bags, cat caves, hats, hot water bottle covers, lamp shades, purses, phone covers, and the list goes on ... I usually run this workshop with a 15 minute break roughly half way through. There are a maximum of six participants to enable me to see what you're all doing. Keeping it small means I have plenty of time for one on one attention. Processing the fibres is made up of a series of repetitive actions. Many people find this relaxing and some a stress buster. But, the final stages of wet felt making can be quite vigorous and very hands on. If you have arthritis or a similar condition in your hands you may find parts of the process more challenging. This does not mean you will not be able to undertake this workshop, just that it may take you a little longer to felt your work. But if you're feeling at all unsure please message me.