Valentine Felt Topiary

I made my first felt topiary way back in 2012.  

I still have it, still use it, I love it!  I decided I needed another one though!  So, I am going to show you how to make one, as long as I'm doing it right...?  You're welcome!

The first one I made with a dowel and two foam spheres.  This time I used a branch I found outside, which I spray painted white, and only one sphere.  As you can see you have options.  Aren't options empowering, or, I mean overwhelming??!!

To start you will need felt.  I bet you wish I would tell you how many yards you need, but I can't!  You can determine how dense you want your felting done.  I can guess that you will need half to 3/4 of a yard of felt.  Does that help?  I do mine more dense.

You will also need a foam sphere or two, straight pins, scissors and I think a rotary blade and mat are helpful, but you can certainly do this without those.

You will also need a base for your topiary, some foam for that, hot glue, a dowel or a stick (painted if you choose) and tulle or fabric to cover the inside of your base.

I begin by cutting my felt into squares.  This is where it goes faster if you have a rotary.

Starting with squares helps me to cut better circles.  

I just go around the edges.  I always cut 2 or 3 layers at a time!  Let's be efficient!  How ever many I can, still able to cut comfortably.

Before you start pinning felt, go ahead and glue your dowel or stick into your foam.  You will want to work around that.

Start at the top of the sphere.  There will be some give and room for the 'not so pretty' ones at the bottom.  I want the top to be uniform and pretty.

In this shot the foam in leaning against the wall.  I didn't put it into my base until it was all done.  It will be easier to manuver the sphere if it isn't in the base yet.

Fold your circles into half and half again.  This gives each piece some volume.  You will be pinning at the base of the folding, where it comes to a point.  You can see that I sort of bend the folded part up and the pinned part is flat.

That is the process!  Just keep going until the sphere is covered in felt.  I have done this several times, don't worry about felt facing the same direction, or lining it up any certain way.  The best way is to stagger everything so all the foam is covered.

After your sphere is covered you can now fill your base with foam, then glue your stick or dowel into that foam.

You can put some tulle or felt in the base, to cover the foam in there.

Done!  Really, if only it took that long!  It's a good mindless activity you can do while listening to TV, or visiting with friends.

Isn't it cute?  I love it!  

Here is how my buffet looked last year with my two topiaries on there.

Here are a couple of other projects I did.  Same idea, different application.