DIY Needle Felted Ghost Witch with Pumpkin

Ghost

1. Ghost Shape. Pull the core wool into five 15” long x ½” wide strips. As The Felt Store’s core white wool has shorter fibers and comes in batt form, be careful when you pull the strips, so you don’t pull the length apart. To learn how to pull wool strips, watch this video:

Video of Pulling Wool Strips: https://youtu.be/x82lDpXYidg

1. I use a skewer to wrap my core shape, though you can always roll the wool just using your hands and pad. You can watch how to wrap with a skewer by watching this video:

Video of Wrapping Wool on a Skewer: https://youtu.be/85zbvLY3rDM

1. Keep adding strips of wool in the same way until you get a 2 ½” tall x 1 ½” wide ghost body. Stab to sculpt the top of the ghost to be rounded and the bottom to stay flat. The firmness of the shape should have the same density as if you squeezed a bagel.

1. Once off the skewer you can keep stab shaping and sculpting your ghost. If you notice the wrapping marks and you want to clean the sculpted body, make a wool square that's not too thick, making sure its size will fit all the way around the ghost. Place the ghost head onto the middle of the wool square, flip it over and gently hold the wool tightly around the shape. Gently stab the wool onto the head, over the top and around the edges and keep holding tight as you stab down to the bottom. The tighter you hold this wool to the shape, the less lumps you’ll see.

2. Eyes. First, stab 2 divots into your ghost shape where the eyes will go, where the top of the eyes is about 1/2" down from the top of the head. Then measure 2 small pieces of black wool that look and feel about the same amount. Roll the wool into your fingers or hand to make them round. When you have two eyes that are the same size, stab each eye into the divots you made on the face. If the eye is too small, add a small amount of black wool around the edge of the eye. If they’re way too big, start over.

Tip: To get a nice clean edge, use the sweep and tuck technique where you gently sweep the little loose fibers with your needle and then stab (tuck) those fibers into the main eye shape.

To learn how to make clean black eyes, watch this video:

Video of Black Eyes: https://youtu.be/BvTQ-Q_1rkg

3. Mouth. Pull a thin strip from the side of the Black wool roving that is the length of the mouth, approx. 2”. Roll the strip lengthwise gently between your fingers and hands. If your hands are dry, you can blow on them to heat them, and this should help the wool roll better. You want it to look like wool “thread”. With your needle, stab in one side of the mouth to secure the wool, then stab along the “thread” in a smiley mouth to attach it to the face. Once you get to the other side, if you have too much, pinch the wool thread where you want to pull it off and pull it. Stab tuck the remaining loose fibers into that corner of the mouth.

Pumpkin

5. Pumpkin. Measure a thin strip of the Orange wool, that is 8” long and 1/2” wide. Carefully wrap a knot into the center and gently push the wool on each side to tighten the knot. If your wool has short fibers, pulling too far away from the knot will pull the wool apart. Wrap one side of the wool around the knot as tight as you can without breaking the wool strand. Once done, stab the wool to secure it. Then wrap the other side around the shape and stab once it’s wrapped around the knot. Now sculpt the shape by rotating it around and stabbing the loose fibers to form a ball shape.
   

6. Stem. To make the stem, take a very thin strip off the Kelly Green wool (approx. 1 ½” long & ¼” wide) and wrap it directly around a toothpick to get the stem shape. Still on the toothpick, gently stab the one end of the stem to tuck in the fibers and leave the other end unfelted, so you can use those fibers to attach the stem into your pumpkin shape. Gently pull it off the toothpick and stab it on your pad to connect the fibers into the stem shape. Alternatively, you can roll some wool between your fingers to make the stem shape if this is easier for you. Then follow the same instructions as the toothpick version.

7. Attach the Pumpkin. Stab one ghost hand into the pumpkin to attach it and then attach the other hand. You can gently loosen the fibers on the hand ends to have loose fibers to help attach. An alternative is to use short straight pins to hold the pumpkin onto the hands. To help hold the pumpkin, I stabbed long the edges of the arms to attach them to the body better making sure to sculpt the arms into their shape if they start to flatten out.

Witch Hat

8. Cone Shape. Measure your Black wool into thin 16” long x ½” wide strips. I used 4 strips, but this depends on how thick your wool strips are and how fat you want to make your hat. Keeping the wool flat and ribbon-like, wrap up the skewer then back down the skewer, gently tugging as you bring the wool around, then give a few stabs to connect the fibers. NOTE: To make the cone shape, don't go all the way back to the top when you do your second wrap and third and so on. Keep adding strips of the wool (wrapping & stabbing) until you get a cone shape that's 2 ¼” tall x the width tapers to 1” wide at the base. Gently stab along the sides of the skewer into the cone shape to make sure the fibers are connected, maybe 50 times all around. Leave some loose fibers at the base where you will attach the cone to the brim circle.

Gently stab the top and bottom of the shape along the skewer BEFORE taking the shape off to make sure it doesn't unravel. Gently push the wool shape off the skewer. There will be a hole at the top and bottom. Stab the hole at the top of the cone to close it; the one at the base will connect to the hat brim so no need to stab it closed. Continue sculpting the hat by stabbing around the cone shape to make sure the fibers are connected.

9. Hat Brim. To create the disk for the witch’s hat, measure a 4” x 4” square of Black wool that’s ¼” thick. Cut the circle from the template and use this as a guide to stab around into the center of the wool square. Once you stab the shape, fold the top over and gently stab it onto your shape to connect, then keep folding wool and stabbing all along your stabbed circle until you have the brim shape. Gently pull the brim off your pad, flip it over and stab the other side to connect the fibers. To help firm the edges, you can gently pull the edge slightly in toward the center and stab along the edge rotating the brim around to even them up. Add more wool to thin parts to keep the shape the same thickness. You can gently rub the brim in your hands to flatten the small fibers and stab any loose ones back into the shape.
   

10. Attach the Witch Hat Shapes. Lay the brim on your pad, with the messier side face down. You want the clean side to be facing up. Loosen some of the fibers from the bottom of the cone shape and lay it directly in the middle of the brim. Stab the loose fibers into the disc to connect the two pieces together. Go around the entire cone, then stab diagonally toward the center of the cone to get those fibers to attach. Then flip the hat to its side and gently stab where the cone is attached to the disc to connect those two pieces fibers better. You want the hat to be securely attached where the hat looks like it was always one piece.
    

Once the hat is one piece, you can stab it onto the top of your ghost’s head to attach it. I stab along the edge of the cone directly into the head, then gently stab diagonally into the cone shape to get the center fibers to attach. Do this until you can pick up the hat and the ghost stays attached.

Alternatively, you can use straight pins if you don’t want to permanently attach the hat to your ghost.

I hope you love making this adorable little spookster as much as I enjoyed writing this tutorial for you. Happy Halloween everyone! Tag us on Instagram @woollydoodlesbycathy and @the_felt_store to show off your creations.

Happy Crafting!!