Embroidery on Felt Made Easy

Whenever I’m planning to add embroidery to my felt projects, I rely on stick and washaway transfer materials to get my design exactly where I want it. Whether I’m working with wool blend craft felt or 100% wool craft felt, I’ve learned a few key tricks through trial and error – so you don’t have to.

Hi! I’m Lorrie Everitt from Make & Merry Co, and today I’m sharing my favourite tips and tricks for using stick and washaway materials on wool craft felt – so you can save time, avoid frustration, and stitch with confidence.

Materials You’ll Need:

• Wool Blend Craft Felt or 100% Wool Craft Felt in the colors of your choice
• Stick and washaway transfer material (I use Pellon’s “Stick-N-Washaway”)
• DMC embroidery floss
• Embroidery needles
• Pencil or heat erasable marker
• Shallow container for water
• Beads (Optional: I added beads to the projects I am sharing in this post)

• small basin
• cold water
• paper towels
• iron and wool ironing mat

Tips to Know Before You Start

1. Pre-wash your felt.
   This step is non-negotiable if you want to protect your embroidery. Pre-washing helps prevent shrinkage after you remove the stick and washaway material – which could otherwise distort your design.

How I do it:
• Cut your felt about 15% larger than your pattern size to allow for shrinkage.
• In my testing, both wool blend and 100% wool craft felt shrank by about 9% (tested across multiple colors).
• Pre-wash in a small plastic washing bin with cold water for 10 minutes.
• Remove the felt, blot with paper towels, and allow to air dry flat overnight.
• Once dry, use an iron on low setting on a wool ironing mat to smooth out any wrinkles.

2. Watch for Color Bleeding (especially darker shades).
   Most colors hold up really well after pre-shrinking. However, I did notice that a few darker colors sometime left a slight tint in the water or on the paper towel when blotting. My suggestion is to pre-wash colors separately to be safe.

1. Trace Your Design.
   Trace your embroidery design onto the non-sticky side of the stick and washaway material using a pencil or heat erasable marker.

Tip: For easy tracing, I recommend using a lightbox or placing your pattern and material up to a window for the natural light.

2. Attach it to your felt.

• Cut the stick and washaway material so that it fits neatly on your felt.
• Peel off the backing and position it on the felt.
• Press firmly so the design is secure and ready to stitch.

3. Finish every embroidery detail first.
   Before removing anything, make sure that your embroidery is completely done.

To prep for removal:
• Trim away any large sections of excess stick and washaway around the edges of your design (a small pair of scissors works great).
• Fill your shallow container with cold water.
• Submerge the embroidered felt and keep it fully under water (you may need to hold it down for a couple of minutes).
• Let it soak for 10 minutes.

4. Remove gently and let it dry.
   After 10 minutes, the stick and washaway usually lifts on it own. If there’s any residue:

• Rinse under cold running water.
• Gently rub off glue residue with your finger.
• Blot dry with paper towels.
• Let air dry for a few hours. Iron on low heat, if necessary to remove wrinkles.