Our Hopeful Home: DIY Needle Felted Wool Acorns For Fall

Today I'm sharing how I tackled a very new-to-me craft: needle felted wool acorns ~ just in time for fall!

felted wool acorns on top of flannel pumpkins

While I'm certainly no expert needle felter (a beginner, actually), I'm happy to share how I made my needle felted acorns, as well as what I learned along the way.

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I'm embarrassed to say that I got this felting "Grab 'n Go Kit" from my local library almost one year ago. And it sat. Honestly, I almost forgot about it. But I'm glad I remembered I had it so that I could finally try my hand at needle felted wool. And what better project than needle felted wool ACORNS at this time of year?

adult grab 'n go kit needle felted acorns paper bag

Here's the kit I picked up at my local library containing all I needed to make some super cute needle felted acorns. (Our local library is awesome!)

Supplies For Making Needle Felted Wool Acorns

Wool roving in yellow, orange and brown

barbed felting needle

foam pad

Elmer's glue

6 acorn tops

mini woven basket

Also needed:

Scissors

Luckily they provided written instructions, as well as a video recording, to guide me through the project. I learned that making these felted wool acorns was really pretty simple. You can find tons of video tutorials for yourself on YouTube.

How To Make Felted Wool Acorns

1. Roll the wool roving around in your palms to create a rough "ball."

2. Set the ball on top of the sponge, gently (and carefully!) poking the felting needle into the wool from all angles, continuing to turn the ball over and over as you poke all sides.

3. You are basically turning a formless mass of fluff (wool roving) into a more dense mass (matted felt) as you shape it into something out of nothing. The key is to poke the areas that are still too "fluffy" in the hopes of making the desired area more dense.

This is the felting needle and sponge I used for the craft. Sometimes it's called a felting pad or cushion or mat. You can also use a felting brush as well for your base. (Links to supplies can be found at the end of this post).

A felting needle has small barbs on the end of it that, when stabbed through the wool roving, catch on the scales of the fiber and push them together. The more you stab, the more the fibers mat together, slowly turning your wool roving into solid felt.

This is my orange felted wool acorn in progress.

orange wool roving and orange wool felted ball

Here's the orange wool roving I used on the left, and the final felted wool ball I created out of it on the right. As you can see, there's a big difference between the "in progress" acorn, sitting on the sponge above, and this nicely finished roly-poly acorn.

A lot of my process consisted of poking the felt ball followed by molding it with my hands into a round ball rather than a loosey-goosey mass of felt. Eventually, I ended up with some round felt balls with narrow enough heads to fit into the acorn caps, each acorn tailored to its specific cap.

three felted acorns in a wicker basket with maple leaf

I was very excited after finishing my first three felted wool acorns.

fall colors and textures in acorns and pumpkins

I finished the last three felted acorns, carefully shaping and sizing them to the remaining acorn caps. Since some of the caps were smaller than others, I had to make some felted acorns smaller than others. It was really just a matter of poking and shaping, poking and shaping, until I reached the right size and shape.

Don't get discouraged - it's not an exact science by any means. And I do believe that the more you do it, the better you'll get at it.

six needle felted acorns topped with real acorn caps

I styled my felted acorns on top of a dough bowl filled with plaid flannel pumpkins.

felted acorns and plaid pumpkins with thankful tag

felted wool acorns in yellow, orange and brown

My main takeaways from this needle felting experience are that you: 1) need to be extra careful not to poke your fingers with the barbed roving needle and 2) be patient for your creation to come to fruition. Honestly, I found the whole experience to be very meditative and calming. Perhaps you will, too!