Felt Wedding Bouquet

Felted Bridal Bouquet

A hand-crafted, felt wedding bouquet is a beautiful way to create flowers that will last a lifetime. You can choose your own flowers, your own colors, and your own arrangement to create a unique bouquet that will be treasured for years to come. Click through this gallery for a detailed how-to and get inspired to create your own.

Supplies

To create your felted flowers you will need 100% wool felt, 100% wool roving, felting needles and scissors. If you want to make a bouquet you will also need wire stiff enough to hold the weight of your flowers, soap and vinegar. We suggest using hand dyed felt or dying your own to create some depth of color in your flowers.

Roses

One of the easiest flowers to make is a rose. For our bouquet we made these miniature rose buds, but you can make your roses any size and any color you like.

Starting Your Roses

To create your roses you will need a long strip of felt with arches cut along one side. Experiment with different styles and sizes of arches until you find the one that is perfect for your rose. You'll also need some roving in a similar color to the felt.

Create The Rose Center

To create your rose start at one end of your strip of felt and begin coiling the strip around itself. Include a bit of roving between the felt as you coil it, and use your felting needle to stab the base of the coil and the roving as you wrap it. Take care not to stab yourself.

Finishing The Rose

Once you've finished wrapping the felt strip, add a bit more roving around the base and stab with your felting needle until it is secure. You can make many different sizes of roses this way with different sized strips, and you can make different styles of roses by changing the style and shape of the cuts you make in your felt.

Daisies

Daisies are slightly more complicated than roses since you'll be working with individual petals, but the possibilities are nearly endless. Use a few petals, or create rich layers with many petals. Create a large center for a sunflower, or leave the center out for a chrysanthemum. You can alter these basic directions any way you like.

Starting Your Daisies

To create your daisies you will need to start by cutting out your petals. You can use as few as 4 petals, or as many as you have the patience to attach. You can also decide if you want round or pointed petals, and if you want them to all be the same size or to grow larger closer to the outside. You'll need roving in a similar color to the petals, and if you want your flower to have a center you'll need roving in that color too.

Create A Daisy Center

Create the center of your daisy by starting with a ball of roving. If you want a large center use a large ball, if you want a small center use a small one. If you don't want a center, just put a little bit of roving between the petals you are starting with. Place the first few petals against the ball of roving, and add a little more roving to the outside. Use your felting needle to attach the petals to the center.

Add More Petals

If you are adding layers of petals around your flower, continue attaching them with layers of roving and the felting needle. Think of the roving as glue, it will help your layers or petals stick together better.

Finishing Your Daisy

Finish your daisy the same way you would finish a rose, with a bit more roving around the base to secure the petals in place. Then flip the flower right side up and use your felting needle to finish the center and make slight adjustments to any petals that need it.

Orchids

Orchids are a little different than daisies and roses because they require you to custom shape petals with wet felting. Once you get the hang of it, you'll have a blast creating intricate and unusual shapes for your flowers.

Starting Your Orchids

To create your orchids you will need to cut out pieces of felt for the flat petals in whatever size and shape you like. You'll also need roving to shape into the more unusual petals.

Creating Unusual Petals

Many flowers, particularly orchids, have petals that ruffle or fold in ways that a flat piece of felt can't imitate. To create these petals you'll want to do a bit of wet felting. Begin by arranging the color of roving you want in roughly the shape of the petal you are trying to create. Make it a bit larger than you need, it will shrink as it felts.

Wet Felting

Gently dip the roving into hot, soapy water. The hotter the water the faster it will felt, but don't make it so hot your burn yourself. Gently rub the roving between your fingers and shape the felt as you go. It should only take a few minutes of rubbing to turn your roving into felt. When you are finished squeeze out the excess water and set it out to dry.

Attaching Orchid Petals

When your petal is dry use roving and a felting needle to attach all of your orchid petals together. Use the needle to do any extra shaping your petals may need.

Adding Small Details

When your flowers are put together, you can add tiny details with bits of roving and your felting needle. Add spots, stripes or just a bit of color variation by stabbing the roving into the felt. You can get as detailed as you like, and even create 3 dimensional shapes like stamens by adding thicker layers of roving.

Attaching A Wire Stem

Once your flowers are finished if you're creating a bouquet you'll want to attach the flowers to wire stems. Cut a piece of wire at an angle so the end is pointy and sharp. Push it through the base of the flower, careful not to poke yourself when it comes out the other side. Bend the wire end down and twist it around the main stem to secure.

Covering The Wire

Now that your flowers are attached to their wire stems, you'll need to cover the wire with wool. Using long strips of roving, begin by wrapping it around the base of the stem where the wire attaches to the flower. Once the wire at the back is covered, use a felting needle to secure it to the flower with a few stabs.

Wrapping The Stem

Continue wrapping the wire, moving down from the base of the flower. Wrap tightly and use your fingers to twist the roving around the wire as you go. You don't have to cover the entire wire, only the part you know will be exposed in the final bouquet.

Felting The Stems

You'll need to do a bit of wet felting to finish your stems. Dip the stems in warm, soapy water and rub the wet felt between your fingers for a minute or so. You are finished when the roving is tight around the wire and will not come unraveled.

Stems and Leaves

Wrapping stems of greenery isn't much different from wrapping your flower stems. Once you've cut out the shapes of the leaves you want, attach them to wire with a little bit of hot glue on the end of each leaf. Wrap the stems just like you would a flower stem, making sure to cover the wire and the glue between all of the leaves with roving.

Rinsing

When you are finished with all your wet felting rinse all parts that may have soap residue with cold water and a splash of vinegar. A couple of tablespoons will remove any traces of soap that might shorten the life of your felt. Don't worry, the vinegar smell shouldn't stick around after the felt is dry.

Arranging Flowers

Once your flowers are rinsed and have fully air dried, you can arrange them into a bouquet. We used a vase to hold the flowers while we arranged them, but choose whatever method works best for you. You can bend the stems in any direction you like to create the perfect bouquet.

Wrapping Stems

Once you are happy with your arrangement, you'll need to secure all of the stems in place. Wrap outside stems around the central base of stems, tucking the exposed wire ends into the center of the bouquet. Trim or fold under any wires that might poke or cut someone later.

Wrapped Stems

Finish up your bouquet by covering your grouping of stems with something a little more beautiful. We wrapped ours with a bit of red and black, 100% wool yarn.

Finished Bouquet

Your felted bouquet is now complete! Ready for a blushing bride, bridesmaid or even a beautiful vase.

Felted Boutonniere

If you've put all of the work into a bouquet, you might as well make a matching boutonniere for the groom. All you need to do is sew a boutonniere or safety pin to the back of the flower. We created the unusual coloring in this orchid to coordinate perfectly with our groom's suit and accessories.

Felted Bouquet

Felting a bouquet isn't fast. You should plan for about 100 hours to create it if this is your first time. If you're willing to make the time, your return will be a beautiful keepsake to treasure forever.

Make a Felt Wedding Bouquet

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