Where to Buy Craft Felt in the UK

Looking for somewhere to buy felt in the UK? Today I'm sharing lots of links to online shops that sell 100% wool felt, wool blend felt squares, and synthetic felt.

I've been meaning to write a blog post about this ever since I closed up my felt shop in the spring, and here is is September already (where does the time go??). Better late than never, right?

I've stuck to (mostly) UK-based shops for this list as they're the ones I shop from, but I think most of these suppliers ship internationally. Lots of these shops also sell other craft supplies like felt beads, brooch clasps, embroidery threads, ribbons pins, etc, but this post is all about the felt, baby!

Please note: some of these shops are / have been my blog sponsors, but this list is not sponsored by anyone. It's just a round-up of lots of felt shops I've bookmarked over the years plus personal recommendations for some shops I've bought from in the past and some brands of felt I've used and loved.


Synthetic Felt 

Synthetic felt is usually washable (although it may pill with repeated washes) and cheaper than wool blend or 100% wool felt. Synthetic felt can vary in quality and I know some crafters wouldn't dream of using it but there are some quality brands out there.

I'm a big fan of the synthetic felt sold at Love Paper Fish / Fuzzy Fish. This felt is great! It's super smooth, comes in some fun colours - like neon pink - and is perfect for cutting out small or intricate shapes. I use a lot of this felt in my own sewing (and I sold small squares of it in my shops for a while, too), especially the black and white for cutting out eyes and tiny pupils.

Acrylic Felt from Fuzzy Fish

I also sometimes buy synthetic felt from Hobbycraft - this is basic craft felt, the sort of thing you think of when you think of "synthetic felt" but it's cheap, comes in some nice colours and definitely has its uses. I often use this felt when making larger items (like masks or felt crowns) where I need the design to have some structure to it.

Felt Sheets from Hobbycraft

Recycled Synthetic Felt 

I also sometimes use recycled felt - this is eco friendly felt made by Kunin from recycled plastic bottles. This felt is machine washable and comes in some interesting mottled colours as well as the usual synthetic shades.
 

Recycled Felt bought by me a few years ago

Unfortunately the online shop I used to buy it from closed down, but you can buy Kunin felt from lots of UK-based shops ...

The Felted Rainbow (I've bought felt from these guys before and had great, friendly service)

Simple Sequins

Craft Etc

The Craft Department

And Rainbow Silks, who also sell some of the colours by the metre


Wool Blend Felt - 30% Wool

As many of you will know, I used to sell wool blend felt in my shops. The 30% wool felt comes in a wide range of gorgeous colours including some soft pastel shades which are really hard to find in synthetic ranges.

Felt bundles I used to sell in my shops

Wool blend felt is a great way to get some of the colour range, softness and quality you get with 100% wool felt but at a more affordable price. I also find that working with 100% wool felt irritates my skin after a while (just like wool sweaters do) but I've never had a problem working with the blended felt. 

My old felt colour chart!

There are a few shops that sell the same range of wool blend felt that I used to - although their colour names will be slightly different, if you're looking for a shade you used to buy from me you should be able to find it here!

The Felt Fairy

Wool Blend Felt from The Felt Fairy

The Dizzy Izzy Shop

Wool Blend Felt from The Dizzy Izzy Shop

And Pixie Rose. 

If you're looking for large quantities of felt you can also try my former wholesaler, Bits and Bats (n.b. they have a minimum order and only ship within the UK).


Other Wool Blend Felt

Fuzzy Fish sells wool felt in some lovely muted colours, with 30-70% wool content depending on the shade. Fuzzy Fish is run by one of my crafty friends, she's a lovely lady and her customer service is always great.

Wool Blend Felt from Fuzzy Fish

Paper & String sells 40% wool felt, plus sewing thread that's been chosen to match each shade (so useful!). I've not bought felt from Paper & String before, but the other supplies I've ordered from them have been great and arrived super quick.

Wool Blend Felt from Paper & String

100% Wool Felt

Sometimes, only 100% wool felt will do!

Most of the 100% wool felt I use is bought from Myriad Natural Toys & Crafts. Their wool felt is pretty gorgeous stuff - smooth and buttery and available in a great range of colours. They also sell organic and plant-dyed wool felt.

 

100% Wool Felt from Myriad Natural Toys & Crafts

Blooming Felt sell three different thicknesses of of 100% wool felt - 1mm felt, 1.5mm woven felt, and 4mm fairtrade felt. I've not bought felt from Blooming Felt before, but I have bought some of their other fab craft supplies and they arrived very quickly.

100% Wool Felt from Blooming Felt

 
Wool Finch Studio (based in Ireland) sells 5mm thick needle felt - I've bought some of this felt before and it's lovely stuff, two-toned and very thick.

Needle Felt from Wool Finch Studio

I've also seen 100% wool felt for sale in the following UK-based online shops:

Handmade Haven

Handmade Presents

Wool Felt Company

Cloud Craft


Patterned / Printed Felt

Patterned felt is awesome but can be hard to find. Here are some of the patterned felt sources I've spotted online...

Hobbycraft sell some felt with large spots, and other patterned felt, like this camouflage design and assorted animal prints.

Patterned Felt from Hobbycraft

Paper & String sell sheets of polkadot felt:

Polkadot Felt from Paper & String

The Craft Department sell a selection of patterned felt sheets...

Patterned Felt from The Craft Department

... as do Craft Etc.

Patterned Felt from Craft Etc

Finally, ILOVEFelt88 (an Etsy shop based in Taiwan) sells a range of felt printed with polkadots, hearts and stars. I know Taiwan is nowhere near the UK but I thought this shop was worth including in my round-up as this felt has been on my crafty wishlist for ages (and small scale prints like these are sooo hard to find!)

Patterned Felt from ILOVEFelt88

Phew, that's quite a lot of felt!

I'll try and keep this post updated if I buy felt from any of these shops, or discover any new suppliers :)

Have you shopped at any of these stores? Do you have other beloved felt suppliers you can recommend? What kind of felt is your favourite to craft with? Do leave a comment and let us know!

How To: Leaf Card

Today I'm sharing a super simple design for a leaf card...

... it's quick and easy to make, but I think it looks rather nice!

A few of these cards would make a great addition to your stationery stash (they make great all-purpose notecards for thank-yous or birthdays or just sending a nice note to a friend) or you could make a set of cards, tie them neatly with a ribbon or a piece of twine and give them as a gift. I think they'd look especially nice paired with brown kraft paper envelopes.

To make the card you will need:

- one of the oak leaf templates from this template sheet
- woodgrain effect sticky back plastic / self-adhesive vinyl
- a piece of white card (A5 folded in half) or a card blank (the card blank I used has a finished size of 4 x 6 inches)
- scissors, a ruler & a pencil
- pins, sewing scissors
- double-sided sticky tape
- green felt (or brown if you want to make an autumn leaf)

1. Use the leaf template to cut out a felt leaf. You could use green paper or card if you wanted, but I think using felt gives the card some nice texture.

2. Cut a strip of sticky back plastic that's longer than the height of your card and 2.5 inches wide - use the ruler and pencil to make sure the edges are nice and straight. The top and bottom edge of the strip should overhang your card like this:

3. Position the strip so that there's a few mms of blank card visible to the left (see the photo of the finished card at the top of this post) and carefully peel off the backing paper to stick it in place.

This is the method I used to stick the plastic on neatly. First, peel away the top section of the backing paper and fold it back.

Turn the plastic over and (taking care that the exposed section doesn't touch the card yet) position the plastic on the card, lining it up neatly. Carefully press the exposed sticky section down onto the top of the card. Then use a ruler to smooth the rest onto the card as you peel away the remaining paper.

4. Your card will now look like this:

Turn the card over and cut away the excess plastic - it's much easier to get a flush edge if you turn the card over as you can follow the edge of the white card. The card will now look like this:

5. Cut some pieces of double-sided sticky tape and press them firmly onto the back of your felt leaf.

7. Carefully peel away the backing paper from the tape, and stick the leaf in position on the card (pressing firmly). And that's it! Easy, huh?

 

Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!

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Things on my April To Do List

Remember my sky blanket? I had totally hoped to have it finished by the end of 2012 but I was so busy working on my new book that I just didn't have the time... and what with one thing and another suddenly it's April and it's still not finished! Tsk tsk.

So, finishing sewing on all these remaining squares is on the top of my "restful crafty things" to do list for this month. I've sewn a few on already, and have about thirty left to go...

Also on my April to do list: finishing organising the folders of press clippings I started putting together a couple of months ago.

I'm adding all my magazine clippings and printing out some nice blog mentions and interviews too, so I can have an easy to flick through archive instead of a stash of magazines & a bunch of bookmarked links. I've kept one magazine though - a lovely Chinese magazine that was my first ever press mention (super exciting!).

The magazine and my press folders live here along with my copies of the craft books my designs have been featured in. We jokingly refer to this shelf as my "ego shelf" :)

In other news, I have totally failed to calculate all the new shipping rates for my shop... so even though the Royal Mail's postage rates have now gone up you guys have a few more days to shop at the "old" prices before I finish my sums.

Back to Work!

I'm pleased to announce that all my shops - on Big Cartel, Etsy, Folksy and DaWanda - are now back open after my Christmas break. Hurrah!

Most of the felt squares and other craft supplies I sell are now back in stock, but there are a few handmade pieces out of stock as I ran out of quite a lot of designs in the run up to Christmas. I'm hoping to get everything re-stocked as soon as possible but in the meantime if there's anything you've had your eye on that you can't see in stock, just let me know and I'll do my best to help :)

It was good to have a bit of "proper" time off from the day-to-day demands of shop-keeping, to enjoy Christmas and to work on some other projects, but it's nice to be settling back into to rhythms of my normal working week.

I've been thinking a lot about my plans for 2013, and I really want to clear out lots of stuff from my sale section to make space in my shops (and in my studio!) for new things. So, until the end of January, all items in my sale sections have been marked down by an extra 50% (so if they were on sale for £5, they're now a mere £2.50). Lots of very affordable treats for you or your friends :)

The biggest selection of sale items is over in my Etsy shop but you can find lots over in my Big Cartel shop too.

A few other things to look out for...

I've got some sets of "not quite perfect" buttons available in my Etsy shop  - these are slightly lower quality than I'd usually sell, but still pretty awesome big buttons:

... there are a couple of very slightly damaged copies of my book, Super-Cute Felt available too:

... and I've listed my remaining Christmas Felt bundles at bargain prices because, well, it's not going to be Christmas again for a while now! You could stock up ready for crafting this year's ornaments, or just use the felt in the bundle to sew other things :)

Oh, and if you're planning some new projects this spring make sure you check out the Valentine's Felt bundle...

... and the recently updated Colour Trends bundle which now includes shades for spring/summer 2013.

Giveaway: Felt Bundles

As promised, here's another fun crafty giveaway!

Today's giveaway prize comes from Claire of fab blog Heart Handmade UK, who was having a spring clean of her supplies stash and has kindly donated a big pile of colourful felt for me to share with my fellow felt-obsessed readers because she is lovely :)

Do check out Heart Handmade UK, which is "jam packed with craft inspiration, interior design inspiration, crafty tutorials, giveaways and sew alongs"... and visit Claire's Etsy shop where she sells pretty vintage fabrics and other crafty bits and bobs. 

There are three bundles of felt up for grabs...

... each bundle is slightly different, but contains about 11 wool blend felt squares, 9 synthetic felt sheets (including some eco friendly felt made from plastic bottles), and a large piece of brown synthetic felt. Lots of felt, with lots and lots of possibilities! 

Three lucky winners will each win one of the bundles. 

Just leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win! I'm happy to ship internationally, so anyone can enter. Leave your comment before 10pm on Tuesday 28th February, and I'll pick three winners at random on Wednesday 29th February. 

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a blog link, Twitter username, Etsy username or email address so I can contact you. If I'm unable to contact the winner within two weeks, I will pick someone else.

UPDATE: this giveaway is now closed.

64 Felt Colours... now back in stock!

I've been running quite low on felt squares recently and had run out of a few colours... but I've just had a big order from my supplier and (almost) all my felt is now back in stock.

Just in time for all your Christmas crafting :)


Teal is unfortunately still sold out, but all the other 64 colours are available.


Felt rainbows are also back in stock, along with lots of colour-themed bundles including the popular Soft Pastels pack...


... and the Christmas Felt pack:


You can buy felt packs and pick 'n' mix bundles of squares from my website, or any of my shops on Etsy, Folksy and DaWanda.

Felt Scrap Bags

In an attempt to tidy up my felt stash, I'm having a clear out of some felt scraps.

I've made up two big bags of scraps (each weighing approx 225g) and listed them over in my Folksy shop. They're listed with UK shipping only but if anyone outside the UK wants to buy one please get in touch and I'll add the shipping rate for your country.

The felt in the bags is mostly synthetic (not the wool blend felt I sell in my shops), and each bag contains a mix of the colours shown including a small amount of animal print felt.


The shapes and sizes of the felt scraps vary, but the largest pieces are approx 4 x 4 inches.