I started making these rolled felt beads a few weeks ago and thought you might enjoy making some for your projects.

Here is what you will need to get started.

• pieces of wool felt
• bamboo skewer or knitting needle (to wrap the felt on)
• hand sewing needles (assorted sizes), thread, scissors
• yarn, perle cotton, embroidery floss (embellishment to wrap around bead)
• assortment of glass seed beads (embellishment to wrap or sew around bead)

First, gather up your materials to made the base of the beads

 

Here is an assortment of wool felt pieces, acrylic ruler and rotary cutter, bamboo skewer, black silk buttonhole twist thread.  Cut a few pieces of felt – 1 inch wide by 2.5  inch long.  I chose black felt to make the set of beads for this tutorial.

Take one of the felt strips you cut and wrap it around the skewer tightly.  Use your needle and thread to sew the edge closed.  I chose white thread for this first bead so you could view the sewn edge. 

 

Once you have completed sewing the edge down, make a knot in the thread, pull the thread through the felt and bury the knot in the felt.

Now pull out your yarn, perle cotton, embroidery floss or whatever you want to use to wrap around the bead.

Below are four beads waiting to be embellished.  I used black thread on the other three.  It is up to you whether you want the thread to match the bead color or not.

I chose a purple and pink perle cotton, cut a length of each, twisted them together then threaded them onto a crewel needle.

Insert the needle into the felt bead as shown.

Pull the thread through and leave a small tail.

Begin wrapping the thread around the bead, catching the tail as you wrap.  Wrap tight enough so the thread will not slide.

Leave some areas unwrapped so the felt color will show through. 

When you are done wrapping, insert the needle into the felt bead and pull the thread through to the other side of the bead.

Feed the needle through the bead once more to secure the thread and cut the thread flush with the bead.

 

Next select a few colors of seed beads.  I chose sparkly shades of purple and pink.

Thread a bead needle (this one is a size 10 quilting between) double threaded and knotted at the end.  I used waxed silimide thread, but you could use a strong hand sewing thread as well.  Pull the needle through the bottom of bead so that the knot is buried in between the layers of felt.

Begin threading the needle with your seed beads.

I created a pattern of 5-3-5 (5 purple beads then 3 pink beads then 5 purple beads) until the length was long enough to wrap around the bead three to four times.

Once the length was right, I wrapped the beaded string around the bead.  To secure the string on the bead, I inserted the needle through the felted bead and came out the other side.  I made a knot close to the point where the needle exited then pulled the needle through the felted bead again and buried the knot.  

And here is the completed rolled felted bead.  Pretty cool huh?

I will leave these on the skewer until I am ready to use them.  They make great eye candy sitting in my pencil jar.  

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.  Please leave me a comment with your ideas – I’d love to hear what you would make with these.

Keep it simple!