Yesterday we met with a sweet homeschooling group, in a friend’s beautiful backyard, and the kids learned how to do some wet felting. Bracken was delighted to see that who was teaching the wet felting was his friend, the handwork teacher at the local Waldorf School, who we know from our time at Rainbow Bridge. She has a gift with children and was so good at explaining how to do each step.

The children wrapped rocks with wool after dipping it in warm water. Layering it first in one direction and then another, with a only a bit of wool at a time. Then they used soap. How fun to get so soapy! Being in the backyard on such a beautiful day was the perfect place to do the project, since it is a messy one. After they’d been felting them with soap for awhile, they set their felted rocks aside to dry in the sun for a just bit. During the drying time, they twisted straps with yarn. Scissors were used to cut a slit to remove the rocks from the inside. The children sewed on their own buttons (Bracken picked a blueberry blue button, of course), the straps were added as well as a little button loop, and they each had a felted wool treasure pouch to bring home with them. What a fun project!

Jeff and I have felted wool around stones before, after I read Lara’s post years ago. We’ve made a few and had a lot of fun with them. This time seeing it done in person by someone with a lot of experience, I learned a few helpful tricks. Some wool felts easier than others. Only use a bit of wool at a time, felting each layer before you add more. Little things like that which give better results. In the past Bracken has grabbed wool and soap and headed to the kitchen sink to “do some felting.” Usually I found a bowl of wool soaking in water later, with all the soap rinsed out. The wool might not have actually gotten felted, but he still had a great time playing with the soap, wool, and water. This was his first finished felted project and I think it was very satisfying for him. I have a feeling he is going to want to make more of these. The felted pouches are such a great crafting project to do with kids!

To watch the children get to make their own felted pouch from start to finish? So awesome. We’re looking forward to getting together with the group again and doing more crafting projects!

What are some of your favorite crafting projects to do with kids?