Needle Felted Cardinal Ornament – Tutorial

Every year, my girlfriends have an ornament exchange, which we conduct white elephant style. It is great fun, and being the crafty person I am, I brought a homemade ornament to the first time we did this.  And the second.  Then the third I just didn’t have time, and brought something that was handmade, but I didn’t make it. There were many protests, so now I happily come up with something not store bought most years.  For 2012, I made little needle-felted birds.   Here are the Goldfinch and Cardinal I brought:
These were so well received that I’ve been making rather a lot of them as little gifts for those I’d like to offer a token of affection. They take about an hour to make (well, that’s how long it takes me when I’m supervising school at the same time!).  Since I can’t make one for all of you, I’ll photo-blog you instructions so you can make your own.

The instructions for the originals are in Wool Pets: Making 20 Figures with Wool Roving and a Barbed Needle by Laurie Sharp . I purchased my copy from Mielke’s while at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.

The book is delightful, and starts out simple with Ladybugs and Bumblebees. My daughter made this:

Then it goes to the birds, and on to things like sheep, cats, dogs, giraffes, and the penguins from the cover. All are delightful, and the steps are clear.

This cardinal combines the original instructions for a Goldfinch with my own adaptations. You will need some wool in red, black, and orange, a felting needle (mine is 36 gauge), and a piece of foam to needle on. The needles are sharp, so caution should be used. (It is quite easy to needle with abandon and end up stabbed! At least with our cardinal here, the blood won’t show. :> )

Pull off a strip of red about 2 inches wide and about 7-9 inches long. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect.

Roll it up….

Once rolled, needle all around to hold it in that shape, poking the non-round bits in and making it a nice cylinder.

Here’s the head area, poke it in and round it.

On the opposite end, flatten it to make the beginnings of a tail.

And here is our body outline. Rather bird-like, eh?!

Cardinals are a bird that carries itself a bit more upright, so I found it nice to give it a neck. I just poked in a line at the back of the neck.

Cardinals also have a crest on their head. To make that, take a little strip of the red fiber:

Fold it and needle the middle bit flattish.

Then put the crest over the head, and felt it on.

Then continue shaping the crest to your liking.

Now we need some wings. If they are only made out of red, then they blend in too much for my liking, so I start out with a tracing of black. Notice there are mirror image wings.

Then add red over the top and felt it all together. The back one is done, the front one with the red just applied.

Peel the wings off the foam, and apply to the bird. The wings should touch in the back.


Pull another tuft of red, and felt it onto the tail to extend it. Needle quite flat. (You can do this before adding the wings, if you don’t want to hold them out of the way.)

Now take some scissors and clip a V in the tail, and trim the wings.

Cardinals have a black face mask. Felt flat some wool for this.

Peel up the piece, and felt it onto the bird’s face.

Every bird needs a beak. Make this one by tightly wrapping a thin strip of orange tightly around the tip of a pencil.

And felt the beak on. I found this a little fussy, since there isn’t a lot of room here, and the beak wool is so tightly wound. I found it more effective to stick the needle in below or behind and push into the beak to secure it.

This is an ornament, so adding a bit of whimsical decoration hinting at feathers would be good. Start by drawing out and twisting some black wool into a thin yarn. (A slippery slope to spinning, my friends!)

Apply the proto-yarn with the needle…this is a little fussy. Keep re-twisting your yarn, and poke poke poke.

Sew on some seed beads for eyes. You can pull the face in a bit while you do this.

And using an embroidery needle, pull through a ribbon or string for hanging.

And here’s our completed Cardinal!

I hope you and yours have a Happy and Wooly Christmas!