A felted hare is a fun wet toy. Dry felting bunny Felting wool bunny

In this master class I will only show how I make a hare's face. The muzzle is a very important part of any toy, I would even say that without the muzzle there is no toy. At the end, in a nutshell, I will tell you how I made the body for this bunny.

To felt our bunny's face we will need:

4 types of wool: white and gray carded and white and gray Semenovskaya. I sometimes use our Russian wool for the base, because there are pleasant shades there, and it saves me a little carding.
Felting needles No. 36 or 38 star - for the base, No. 40 - for forming the muzzle and facial expressions, No. 40 reverse - to create fluffiness for our bunny.
Felting brush or sponge. I prefer a brush, but it's a matter of taste :)
Some kind of slicker (in my case it’s a comb, kindly given to me by my cat Romashka)
Eyes, glass or plastic. In my case, there were no glass ones of the required size at home, so I had to use German plastic ones. Very good quality, by the way. They were purchased from Leonardo.
Dry pastel and brushes for tinting the face.

1. For the master class, I chose a two-color bunny - his face is white and the back of his head is gray, so now our task is to correctly combine the wool so that the base for the bunny’s head consists of two parts: white and gray. We will make the base from Semenovskaya wool.

For the base of the muzzle, we take a pre-fluffed skein of gray wool, twist it into a “sausage” and compact it with coarse needles (No. 36 or 38 star) so that it becomes flat, like a pancake.

As a result, this is what we should get.

2. Now we roll white Semenov wool onto the resulting half of gray wool so that we get this two-color ball:

3. We wrap our wool ball in gray and white carded yarn, respectively, and hammer it until tight with needles No. 38 star.

4. Now it’s time to take care of our bunny’s face. I admit honestly - this is my favorite stage in felting. For her sake, I, in general, am starting the whole long and sometimes labor-intensive process.

First, we mark with a coarse needle the places where we will have the eyes:

5. Add fur to the cheeks and forehead like this:

Next, we roll this fur thoroughly so that it is not soft. If necessary, add more wool. When it comes to adding volume to the muzzle, I prefer to add a little bit of fur several times to build up the desired volume, rather than adding it once and then not knowing how to get rid of the excess shape.

Photo of the muzzle in profile, so that it is clear what shapes we need to strive for:

6. Now, with a coarse needle, we mark where our bunny’s nose and mouth will be:

7. Try on the eyes and expand the space for them with a coarse needle, if necessary (as in my case).

8. Make a nose from pink fur. Subsequently, it seemed to me that there was not enough fur, so I added more. At this stage, we are using needles No. 40.

Photo of a bunny with eyes and a nose (the eyes are already glued into the holes, I use Moment Crystal glue for gluing):

9. Our bunny still looks like an alien, but his eyelids are designed to fix everything. So, eyelids. We make them from two small pieces of wool as shown in the photos below. First we collapse the middle, then we bend it in half and thoroughly collapse one edge of the eyelid so that it becomes smooth, thin and dense. We do all this with a No. 40 needle.

As a result, we get this eyelid:

10. We seal the eyelids with a needle No. 38 star (this, in my opinion, is faster and more effective):

11. Now we once again go through the entire surface of the bunny with needles No. 40 and compact it properly (any toy made of wool should be hard, then it will live for a long time), and take reverse needles No. 40. Now we will make fur for the bunny.

This is the furry beast we got.

Now we cut our beast's hair and comb it:

12. Finally we come to tinting the bunny.

To do this, we will need crushed dry pastel of different colors (in my case it is black, pink and, it seems, gray), and a brush, our fighting friend:

I think you can see where I tinted the bunny in the photo. There is one rule here - everything is good in moderation. Yes, I also added slightly raised eyebrows to the bunny:

13. We have very little left, just a little. Making ears.

For the ears we take wool, as shown in the photo, and roll it properly:

The ear should look as thick as in the photo below:

14. Now we roll up the ears of our animal (remember symmetry!):

The muzzle and head of our bunny are almost finished, all that remains is to fluff the rest of the head.

Our handsome boy (or rather, a beauty, because the result is a girl) is ready!

Here, the next day, I slightly tinted the baby’s lips and nose.

Regarding the bunny’s body: here I’m unlikely to tell you any secrets, there are plenty of examples of how to make a felt body, I’ll only say that the base of this bunny’s body is the same as the head, that is, two-color.

Today on the agenda is a small woolen toy - a felted hare, or, to be precise, two clothes, slightly different in color, so as not to be “incubator”, different from each other. Let's make them ourselves.

It is better to make such smiling cuties on a wire frame using dry felting from unspun wool. Then our toys will be able to stand, sit, and raise their arms.

DIY felted hare toy for beginners

In Germany, the Easter holiday is not complete without an Easter bunny, no matter what kind - chocolate or just a figurine. There must be a hare. At least one. Well, another chicken. By the way, more on this a little later, in another post.

Anyone who has never tried their hand at dry or wet felting, or more precisely, at making toys, can start with such crumbs as shown below, they are based on felted balls. Only noses, antennae, and beady eyes were added.

I think you already know how to felt round balls. And if not yet, then I have a detailed description of how to do it. I made felted beads and also earrings this way.
This is the simplest thing that you can felt yourself and is always the very first thing that beginners are offered to do in felting toys.

In this case, it is not bad to combine dry felting with wet felting to save time and effort, that is, finish the started balls in the washing machine in a nylon pantyhose.

If you put the under-felled round warps into a stocking one at a time, and tie knots between them so that you get such a “sausage,” then they will feel quite well in the machine.

You only need four pieces - a larger one for the hare's body, a smaller one for the head, and two very small ones for the arms. If you want, make two more for the legs, but this is not necessary in this case.

You don’t need to felt the bunny ears at all, but simply cut them out by taking a thin piece of felt of a suitable color. Fleece or other material that holds its shape a little and does not require additional processing is suitable.

This was perhaps the most primitive method of making a hare, but it also has its place.

Now let's move on to a more complex version of almost cartoonish hares. They seem alive - they are about to start walking and talking!

The wool is taken in natural tones, beige, gray, light and dark brown, cream, white. You can take similar colors. And if there are no others at hand... well, let the hare be red with a white muzzle. You decide.

I already talked about how to make a felted toy on a frame using dry felting earlier, in a post about a mouse - you can read the details if they interest you. The mouse is white, very simple, but there are many photographs of different stages of work, starting with a wire frame and ending with the finished soft toy.

Please note that the ears on the inside of felted hares are fluffy and of a different color, different from the tone of the ear itself. The wool is felted a little, but not completely. Then take a comb and lightly comb the fur until the desired effect is obtained.

The eyes can be made using two beads, sewn on or glued, but in this case all the details of the toys are made using the same technique - dry felting. The eyes, nose and mouth are dark brown fur.

In my opinion, the felted hares turned out great - cute, kind and a little naive. If desired, they can be dressed in jackets, pants, T-shirts, hats and scarves, depending on the weather and time of year. Dressing one as a boy and the other as a girl will also look interesting.

Materials and tools for felting.

Felting wool (Australian merino): grey, white, pink and red. The colors proposed here are by no means dogma. You can use any that you like.
Trinity wool.
Needles for felting: No. 38 (for forming parts of the toy), No. 40 (for smoothing the surface), reverse needle to make the toy fluffy.
Felting sponge.
A small button (we will use it to attach the head).
Needle for sewing soft toys. It can be purchased at craft stores.
Scissors.
Threads for attaching the legs and head.

We will first make all the parts of the toy from Trinity wool. It is cheaper than the one we will use to roll the surface. Take a medium sized tuft of wool to felt the head of the toy. In the photographs I tried to capture not only the materials, but also the hands, so that you would have an idea of the size of the tufts of wool and details.

Using a 38 gauge needle, give the head the desired shape.

Using a #40 needle, smooth the surface of the toy's head. From the front side, make the head flat, as shown in the figure:

Take a small tuft of wool. The photo shows what the bun should be relative to the head.

We roll this bundle of wool onto the toy’s face and form the cheeks.

The finished muzzle looks like this:

Now take a small amount of gray wool and roll the surface of the head, thus turning it gray. Roll the cheeks with white wool.

Now let's take care of the body. Take a bunch of Trinity wool and use your hands to shape it into a cone.

On a sponge, using a No. 38 needle, we begin to form the body of the toy. As soon as the tuft of wool begins to take the desired shape, change the needle to number 40. I noticed that when you felt with a thick needle, a void forms inside the mold, and you get a bag. When working with a thin needle, this does not happen and the work looks much neater.

By repeatedly poking in the same place, we form indentations for the paws and head of the toy.

When the body shape is ready, roll it with gray wool.

Now let's return to the muzzle again. Take a small bunch of pink wool and use a sponge to make a small ball out of it. This is the bunny's future nose.

Roll this ball onto the toy's face:

Now that we have the head and torso ready, we will make a hinged mount. Now in craft stores you can buy real joints, like those used in toy factories. But we will use an ordinary button as a hinge. Pull the thread as shown in the photo:

Make a small depression in the head of the toy at the junction with the body; in other words, poke it there many, many times with a felting needle. Place the button in this recess. The thread that is threaded into the button must be long enough.

Take a small bunch of gray wool and use it to roll the button, thus securing it to the head. Leave the ends of the thread outside.

Just as you made a recess for a button on the head of a toy, make recesses on the body where the head and legs are attached.

Using a needle, pull each end of the thread through the body.

After pulling both ends of the thread through the body, pull them and tie a knot, thereby securing the head of the toy.

Use a small tuft of gray wool to mask the ends of the thread.

Now let's take care of the muzzle. Let's make eyes. For this purpose, you can use small black beads. Ready-made eyes can also be purchased at craft stores. For this bunny I made the eyes myself. How? Yes, very simple! I'm sure you can do this too. I have a whole briquette of self-hardening clay. It is not plastic enough to sculpt toys or things with small details from it, but you can make small cakes for the eyes from it. After tearing off a small piece of clay, we make a tablet out of it, let it harden and cover it with black nail polish. That's it, the eyes are ready!

On the face of the toy we select a place for the eyes, make indentations there and glue our pill eyes. Using dark gray wool we create small, raised eyebrows.

Now let's move on to felting the ears. To do this, take two identical tufts of gray wool and, slightly tangling them, give them the shape of ears. I recommend taking exactly two tufts at once, and not felting them one by one, because it is very difficult to judge from a felted product how much wool you need to take to felt the same piece.

We begin to make the ear on the sponge. We do not touch the upper edge (the place where the ear is attached to the head).

Carefully, trying not to injure your fingers, we process the edges of the ear.

Here's what happened:

Use a reverse needle to make the ear fluffy. It is more convenient to do this right now, when the ear is not pressed against the head.

The edges of the ear can be trimmed slightly with scissors.

By analogy we make the second ear. It's okay if the ears don't turn out exactly the same :)

We pin the ears to the head:

This is what the baby looks like:

Let's move on to felting the paws. Take a small bunch of Trinity wool and give it the shape of a paw. To make things go faster, you can felt with several needles at the same time.

Roll the paw in gray wool.

We make the second leg in the same way.

The toy's arms will also be movable. We will need a needle and thread again. Make a knot on the inside of the foot and pull the thread through the body. Since our toy is miniature, the legs are small, here it is enough to just use a thread fastening, without using a button.

We pierce the second leg through and pull out the needle in the opposite direction.

After we secure the thread, there will be indentations on the outer sides of the paws - marks from the threads.

They need to be camouflaged with small tufts of gray wool.

This is what happens at this stage of work:

I looked at our little bunny and decided that it was still necessary to make a mouth. She turns out to be very sad without him. So, using a thin needle we outline the mouth on the muzzle.

Using pink wool we shade the mouth:

There is very little left until the completion of the toy, namely, felting the legs. Take a bunch of wool, the size of which is shown in the photo:

We give the tuft of wool the shape of a small leg:

Lightly fold the upper part of the leg.

We roll the leg with gray wool, leaving the top intact. Leg from different angles:

Our little bunny will be wearing red sandals. To felt them we will need a small amount of red wool. We begin to roll the wool onto the sole.

Then we carefully form the shoe. At this stage, the red wool does not need to be matted before felting.

The shoe is almost ready.

All that remains is to make the strap. To do this, we roll a thin strip of red wool, also tangling it, so that the fiber remains.

First we need wool and needles for felting. In my case, this is Trinity fine wool and needles No. 36 and No. 38 (asterisk).

Take a piece of wool and fluff it well. We start felting with a coarse needle (No. 36). The bunny will be pure wool, because... We will process it with a needle with a reverse tooth, which pulls out the wool fibers and produces a fluffy effect. At this stage, the needle should go as deep as possible so that the wool feels inside the workpiece.

The output is an oval workpiece with a loose surface for further processing. This will be the base of our bunny's body.

Notice how loose the workpiece is; it can be crushed with your fingers.

We felt a smaller ball, this will be the bunny's sternum. We roll it diagonally to the main body piece.

For thorough fastening, add wool to the joint.

We do the same with the head.

Add wool to the back, you need to form a small hump. We still stick the needle deep.

Be sure to form the eye sockets while the head is still loose. Then we will glue beads there.

Separately we dump 2 small balls, these will be the jowls of the muzzle.

We roll it symmetrically to the eye sockets.

We extend the nasal septum by adding a small piece of wool.

Add fur to the cheeks.

We dump a small pea and place it on the place of the chin.

Now we fall evenly on all sides. If you feel that there is not enough volume somewhere, add more.

Add wool for the hind thighs.

We carefully form the volumes, symmetrically, on both sides.

Separately, we dump the paws themselves. Immediately take an equal amount of wool on both feet and felt it in parallel.

We form a plane from the bottom side. In this place we poke the needle more diligently.

We put the paws in their places.

We admire what we have achieved.

If there are any shortcomings, we correct them immediately. And we definitely follow the form.

Once again we pay attention to the hump; if it is too small, add fur now.

In the same way as the hind legs, we fold the front ones. They imply a bend, we form it by holding the foot between the fingers.

The same thing, closer to the shoulder.

We place the legs symmetrically in the appropriate places.

Add wool to the joint.

This is what she is, our sweetheart. Still without ears and eyes, but already so dear and sweet.)))

Also, place the tail between the fingers, its tip should be sharp.

Let's roll it to its rightful place.))

Let's start surface treatment - “grinding”. We “sand” only in those places where fluffiness is not implied. The rest will not be visible. There are not so many of these places: the belly, the front part of the muzzle, the paws and the bottom. We often go over the surface with a thin needle (No. 38), removing all the unevenness and imperfections. Be patient, the process is quite long.

We “grind” very carefully in the recesses.

It's time to glue on the beady eyes. For this I use moment-crystal glue. We drip glue into the recesses of the eye sockets so that the fur absorbs it a little.

We wait a little and plant the beads deeply, pressing them together with our fingers.

We remove all excess around the eyes.

It's time to form the eyelids; to do this, we dump 2 tiny blanks.

Carefully place the eyelid tightly on top of the bead.

As much as possible, and just as carefully - compact

We emphasize the shape of the eyes.

We are working on everything that is nearby.

We will roll the ears on a sponge; any that is at hand will do, only a clean one, and not one that has already been washed the dishes or the car.) We take 2 identical pieces of wool and lay them out on a sponge. We felt over the entire plane, watching the shape. If you feel that there is not enough fur somewhere, you can add, if there is too much, remove it. Periodically turn the workpieces over.

Very carefully, between the fingers, we process the edges. We roll all the hairs into the structure of the ear.
Be sure to leave the fur loose where the ear will attach to the head.

We form a bend.

Using the fluff that was left, we pin the ear to the back of the bunny’s head.

Add fur to the joint.

In the same way we roll the 2nd eye, only according to the idea it is lowered down. Our bunny is a cunning Skoda, so only one ear sticks out mischievously on the top of her head.

Before you start tinting the ear, you need to go along its edges and back with a needle with a reverse tooth. This is necessary so that the needle does not pull out the tinted fur and stain the back side.
If you don't have a reverse tooth needle, sand the entire surface of the bunny.

Because The master class is simplified, we will not use paints, because... you simply may not have them. Let’s take ordinary cosmetics that any woman has.) Men, shake the cosmetic bags of your wives and girlfriends!))

Using a soft brush, dry, carefully apply the tone from dark to light.

Using a thinner brush, we go over the darkest shade in the recesses. The nose is touching pink.)

We also carefully tint the recesses above the upper eyelids.

Blush on the cheeks. They will give the bunny a New Year's mood, a kind of frosty blush.)

We go through all the places that have not been sanded with a needle with a reverse tooth.

On the back side.)

Here it is, our New Year's sweet, which will warm and touch even the hardest heart.

I suggest you make a cute bunny, which can be a wonderful gift for your loved ones for Easter or will be a beautiful addition to the holiday decor in your home. In addition, adorable bunnies are loved by many, and we can be touched by them all year round :)

This master class is designed for beginners, but perhaps it will also be useful for those who already have some experience in felting.

So, to create an Easter bunny we will need:

the wool is semi-fine and thin in beige shades (I won’t write in grams, everyone has their own favorite size of toys and, accordingly, a different amount of wool will be needed). I have wool in my top;
fine wool of white or harsh color;
felting needles No. 36 (coarse), No. 38 (medium, preferably “star”) and needle No. 40 reverse for fluffing;
eyes for a bunny (these can be special glass eyes for Teddy bears, like mine, or black buttons on a leg, you can also make eyes out of plastic and cover them with varnish);
transparent glue “Moment”;
monofilament or thin fishing line for antennae;
dry pastel for tinting;
felting sponge (a regular car washing sponge will do).

To begin, tear off a small piece from a semi-thin combed ribbon and roll it into a ball. This will be the head of our bunny. We need to twist the workpiece tightly enough, but not too tightly; we will still need to work with the part, and if we make it initially very tight, then it will be difficult to give it a shape. Semi-coarse wool mats well and quickly and requires less than fine wool for the same volume.

We secure the free edge with a needle No. 36 and begin to sink the workpiece evenly, sticking the needle towards the center and withdrawing it at the same angle at which it was inserted. It is very important! If you change the position of the needle while it is still in the wool, the needle may break. The needle goes in deep enough. There is no need to pierce the part all the way through, but you cannot work on the surface either. I work with two needles at once, it saves time, but in the beginning you may find it more convenient to use only one needle.

Roll the compacted workpiece on top with fine beige wool. We need this to make the product smoother, more aesthetically pleasing and pleasant to the touch. Fine wool can be pulled from a combed strip and mixed with your hands, or you can use an animal brush and simply comb the fur.

We wrap the head blank in fine wool and felt it.

The ball should be quite dense on the inside, but loose on the outside. When pressed, such a part is dented, but not flattened.

Using the same principle, we make the bunny’s body. We make a cone-shaped piece of semi-coarse wool, roll it thoroughly, continuously turning it to work the body evenly. Roll with fine wool. We leave the place where the body is attached to the head unfilled. This is necessary in order to fasten the bunny’s body and head with loose hairs using a needle.

When the body is well (but not completely!) covered, we roll it to the head at a slight angle.

Additionally, we work on the joint by rolling a little wool around the entire circumference of the neck, capturing part of the head and body. Please note that the bunny's neck should also be well felted, not weak, and the body itself should be well felted to the head. Otherwise, it may come off later or the bunny itself may become crooked during the felting process.

We roll light fur onto the chest and tummy. In the future, when we fluff the toy, the fur on the bunny’s tummy will be lighter than on other parts of the body.

We form a nose from beige thin wool and roll it down.

We form a ball from light wool; this will be the bunny’s chin.

We work on the muzzle, form a nasolabial fold, a smile and an open mouth. We also form the head in accordance with the anatomical features of the hares. Their eyes are located on the sides in order to notice the predator in time and escape, so we seem to press a needle on the sides of our little head, making the muzzle more elongated forward.

Time to attach the eyes. For bunnies they roll out a little, but I have glass eyes in the form of hemispheres, so for my bunny I didn’t make eye sockets, but simply made holes with an awl where I needed to insert the loops, coated the inside of the eye along with the loop with Moment glue and glued them in.

Let's make delicious cheeks

This is how the face turns out :)

Now it's a matter of centuries. We form woolen cakes, roll them a little on both sides, fold them and roll them some more. Immediately measure an equal amount of wool into paired pieces (cheeks, paws, eyelids, etc.) and felt them in pairs so that you don’t end up with one piece larger than the other.

We flatten the upper eyelid, lowering it a little. The movement of the needle when planting the eyelid goes up tangent to the eye. Be careful not to touch the eye, you can damage it and break the needle

We also felt the lower eyelid.

Now it's the turn of the lower legs. We form the bunny's thighs from two identical pieces of wool.

Shaping the butt.

We felt the paws themselves and applied them to the bunny’s thighs. If you feel that somewhere you need to add wool for volume, add it, in the end the toy should be tightly felted, so you shouldn’t save wool.

We roll clouds of wool over the seams. You need to work hard on the legs, tamping them so that they are tight and to give the final shape.

Felt the front legs. We give them shape, try them on and roll them onto the bunny. We increase volumes if necessary. We treat the surface with clouds of wool.