How to make felted acorns
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It’s really easy to make felted acorns with a little left over wool roving and a felting needle.
It’s been a crazy year for acorns here, the oak trees were under stress in the summer heatwave apparently and so have massively over produced acorns in response. There are so many they are just carpeting the path on my daily walk to the post box with my Etsy parcels.
Quite a few years ago I used some acorns to fill some apothecary jars in an attempt at some seasonal decor. What I learnt then is that it is very important to dry acorns out thoroughly if you are going to put them in a jar and also that as you bake then in the oven they smell pretty bad! You can read more about my fail (and the autumn ideas that did work) here > Autumn Apothecary Jar filling for free
This year I thought I could have another go at some autumnal decor and so on my walk last week I picked up a handful of the acorn cups that scatter the path in their hundreds.
I have done a few needle felting projects over the years and had a few little bits of left over roving which seemed perfect to make some little faux acorns. I’m definitely not an expert needle felter but the great thing about acorns is that the shape is so simple you don’t have to be an expert to make them!
Over the years I’ve made a heart, a teddy, a little cat, a bee and a little dog, mostly using kits from The Makerss. Their kits are pretty generous with the roving so I had some leftovers and you know how I don’t like to throw away perfectly good craft supplies that might come in for something one day!
Prepping acorn cups for crafting
First thing I did to the acorn cups was to give them a good wash in some warm water with a little dish soap and a splash of disinfectant.
Then I laid them in a dish on a sunny windowsill to dry thoroughly.
What you need to make needle felted acorns
You will need:
Clean dry acorn cups
A felting pad
All my needle felting supplies are left overs from kits from The Makerss.
I have seen people use pure wool yarn for needle felting, pulling it apart and the using it in the same way as the roving. I can’t vouch for that method myself as I’ve not tried it but if you have some yarn knocking around it might be worth a go.
Using wool roving scraps to make faux acorns
Take a small piece of roving, roughly about the size of your little finger, and roll it tightly into a little short fat sausage. Using a felting needle and pad, stab all over to secure the fluffy roving and form a small oval acorn sized blob. You do need to be VERY careful when using a needle felting needle. They are barbed and bloomin’ hurt if you stab your finger so…. just don’t! Your acorns are pretty small so of course, you do need to be extra careful.
Assembling a felted acorn
Once you are happy with your little felted oval try it out in a few of your acorn cups until you find one that is a good fit.
Apply a blob of a good strong pva glue to the inside of the acorn cup. I used High Tack but Anita’s Tacky Glue and Aleene’s Tacky Glue are both pretty much the same stuff. Press your felted acorn into the cup and hold it for a few seconds then gently lay it somewhere to dry.
I did experiment with a few different glues and this was the best I found, but hot glue does work as well.
Each acorn takes a couple of minutes to make so just making a few is a pretty quick craft. If you want a bowl full you are going to need a whole evening!
Some of my acorn cups were really quite tiny and some were a little larger. I didn’t find any really good, big sized cups though, I’m thinking maybe that’s because of the weather we had this year. It’s maybe made the oak trees produce lots and lots of acorns but they are all on the small size. You will most like find things are different in your part of the world.
A fun interesting thing to note is that the larger felted acorns behave a bit like Weebles. Did you have Weebles were you are when you were growing up? They were little toys shaped like eggs that had weighted bottoms so they would always pop back up the right way. “Weebles wobble but the won’t fall down” was the advertising slogan! The cup is heavier than the felted bit so the felted acorns tend to stand upright.
Anyway, there you have it, faux acorns made by needle felting wool along with real acorn cups. They don’t go mouldy if stored in a lidded jar, they will last for years and you can put them in bowls, sprinkle them on an autumn vignette, tie them to twine to make a garland; whatever takes your fancy.
I don’t know what colour natural acorns are in your part of the world, or even if you have them. Here they vary from a pale yellow to greenish to dark brown. As you can see my faux felted acorns are a little more varied in colour, I was using up the roving that I already had after all, but I did try to keep to a pallet of natural and autumnal colours. There is no reason at all why you can’t make your acorns any colour you like though.
The doodled leaves in this photo are some that I did recently, find out more about them here > Doodled autumn leaves
Have you got any little bits of wool roving left over from a needle or wet felting project? Why not have a go at making some faux acorns that you’ll be able to add to your autumn decor for years to come?
Julie
I’ll be sharing this idea at these link ups
