How to Make a Felted Easter Egg

Well, I did get round to it, and here I will explain how you can make your own felted Easter egg. Of course this applies to any sort of wet felting over a shape, so you could make a little round bag over a ball or a felted cup to hold jewellery.

You will need:

Carded Merino wool for felting - please be careful where you source your wool from as some Merino sheep are subjected to Mulesing which is a horrific practice, but mostly affects Australian and New Zealand wool.
Hot water - 60C is ideal although you will want it cooler if doing this with children.
Soap - it must be soap though, not detergent.
Polystyrene shape - to felt over. I could only find a ball so had to cut an egg shape from it.
Bowl - to hold the water.
Scissors - to cut the shape off the mould.
Cloth or Tea Towel - to roll your egg in to felt it.
Wooden spatula or spoon (optional)- to bash your egg with.

Prepare your wool first of all with dry hands! Tear off little pieces of wool and lay them ready. I made the mistake of not doing enough and having to dry my hands and prepare more wool half way through. This doesn't matter too much as I had to break off to re-heat my water several times. The water must be warm or the wool won't felt.
Prepare your warm soapy water. The ratio is usually about 1 tsp soap to 500 ml water.
Cover your egg shape in pieces of wool and, holding the egg over your bowl, wet the wool. Continue to add wool to the shape evenly all over, continuing to wet it as you go, until you have enough layers. If you don't use enough layers then your egg will be too thin and will not hold its shape once it is off the polystyrene. I think you will need at least four layers.

In the early stages handle the egg with care, gently passing it from one hand to the other, as the wool will easily come off if you rub it at this stage. Keep pouring your warm water over the egg as you go. As the wool begins to felt you can handle it more firmly, patting and squeezing it. When it seems to be felting up well wrap the egg in a cloth or tea towel and roll it firmly on your work surface. After you have done this you can either slap it with your hand or wrap the cloth over a wooden spoon and hit the egg with that. It is great fun!

Once it is firmly felted you can cut the felt off the shape. Stuff the inside with scrunched up paper or a dry tea towel and fasten it back together with safety pins if necessary, or tie a ribbon around the outside to keep it together while it dries. I pressed mine down slightly so one side has a flattened bit for it to lie on without rolling over.