In this tutorial I will show how to needle felt a mushroom house like the one above.

What you will need for this project:

1. Felting needles – 38 star, 36 triangle, 38 triangle
2. Felting mat
3. A couple of colored felt sheets for decoration (the rug and the windows)
4. Mouline thread for stitching
5. Bead for door handle
6. Plain corriedale wool batting for the base
7. Colored merino wool for the top and decoration

Part 1 – Stem

We start by felting the walls of the mushroom stem. Put some wool batting in layers and needle felt it with 36 triangle needles.

Tip: Use multiple needles. You can hold a few needles together. I use a 6 needle holder – it speeds up the process.

Don’t forget to flip the wool all the time while felting. Otherwise it will stick to the mat.

Add layers of wool until you feel that the wall will be thick and firm enough for the house to stand. Mostly needle felt in the middle part and leave the edges loose. We will use the edges to make a stem tube out of the wall, and also attach the mushroom cap.

When you have felted the wall (it needs to be flat from both sides), attach the edges to form a tube:

Needle felt it until you don’t see the seam. You should turn the tube inside-out a few times to do this. You should get a nice tube with smooth walls at the end.

Start closing one end of the tube to form a floor. You can add more wool if you get any holes.

Don’t forget to needle felt the inside part also.

The floor should be very flat and smooth on both sides.

Tip: you should change your needles to finer ones if you feel like they don’t penetrate smoothly. You shouldn’t be getting a lot of resistance when felting (for example, from 36 triangle to 38 triangle).

At this point I smooth and flatten the bottom and embroider a felt rug to it.

Color the bottom part with some beige and brown felt – it will look like soil. And add some green on the walls leaving the section for the door not covered.

Time to crack the door open! Cut the door of the size you want. (Hint: kids love to put creatures inside these houses, so if you intend to use it as toy, make the door large enough).

After cutting needle felt the raw edges on both the door and the stem walls. 

Wrap the door with some colored wool:

Blanket stitch the door frame.

Attach the door handle (I use a wooden bead) and you have a door!

Cut a window on the other side of the stem. You will also have needle felt the cut edges.

Decorate it with felt if you wish:

The stem is done for now. Click here for the second part – the cap and final finish.