Introduction: Felt Ball Rug
I first saw this type of rug in a design magazine, it was called Hay Pinocchio Rug. It was gorgeous the felt balls were made from brightly coloured wool that made them look like gum balls. I had to have it, but the price tag was ~$1000 Cdn. I've made a few felt balls before so I figured I can make this type of rug myself. Although the process of making this rug was fairly easy, it took a lot of time; first felting the balls then sewing them together. When I check the date of the first process pictures I took, I had started in May 2011, so it took me almost a year to put this together.
I decided against using the bright colours that the Pinocchio Rug had because frankly it wouldn't really match the decor in my apartment. I used mostly shades of brown and white.
Step 1: Stuff You Will Need
- Wool, etc
- Dish soap and water
- Plastic containers
- Paper towels
- Nylon thread and needle
- Patience and time
Step 2: Making the Felt Balls
- Squirt some dish soap into your container and fill with warm water, fill the other container with cold water.
- Grab a tuft wool, bunch it together into a ballish shape and dip into the warm soapy water, remove and squeeze out the excess water.
- Place the soggy tuft of wool in the centre of the palm of one hand, place your second hand over top and roll in a circular motion.
- Once the tuft of hair is felted into a ball, dip it in the cold water to rinse (the longer you roll, the smaller and denser it gets).
Step 3: Stringing the Felt Balls
It is easier to poke holes in the felt balls when they are still wet but at that point I hadn't decided how I was going to put the the rug together. At first I thought that I would string all of the felt balls, wind it in a spiral then sew the rows together. However I didn't like the idea of having a long string of felt balls since my cat would surely try to play with and I would end up with a tangled mess. What I did instead was to add one ball at a time connecting it to the previous felt ball and the one in the row beside it (see image 3 above).