How to Make a Felt Boa
| I was feeling crafty today and decided to make something I’ve dubbed the “felt boa.” It’s like a feather boa, but more colorful, less messy, and honestly, way cooler looking! I was at Hobby Lobby when I saw this thing (pictured below) that I thought was super cool, but definitely didn’t want to pay $14 for. Whenever I see something that I could make for a lot cheaper than I could buy it for, I’m ready for a craft project! This one definitely had a little bit of a learning curve though… Read the section below to see what happened before I perfected the design!
The Trial Version:
So the first problem I ran into was the issue of my felt being significantly thinner than the felt they used to make the thing at Hobby Lobby (pictured below to the far left). When I threaded all of the felt strips onto the yarn, I ended up with a short, colorful log of a result (pictured below to the right). It looked sad and I was worried that I’d spent a few hours cutting felt into little strips for absolutely no reason. The felt was so thin that the final product was only about a foot long. I put the project on hold for a little bit and went to the gym. On my way home, I had an epiphany – if I folded the pieces in half, it would double the thickness, therefore adding the volume I needed to avoid the “log” issue. To my delight, it worked out beautifully and the project was not a waste!
The Final Version:
Things You’ll Need:
- 10+ Sheets of Craft Felt
- Spool of Yarn
- Yarn Darners
- Extremely Sharp Scissors
- Knife & Cutting Mat (optional)
- Ruler
- 2 plastic beads
I bought everything I needed to make this at Hobby Lobby. I got lucky and the felt happened to be 50% off the day I went shopping! Don’t forget to use their 40% off coupon – click here for the link and then click “GET 40% OFF” at the top! You can also buy these things at any other craft store.
What is This For?
The felt boa is a fun piece of decor that you can use for dog photos or any other application! You can put it around your dog’s neck, your own neck, or hang it across a wall to add a pop of color. You can drape it across a buffet table or use it to add color to a photo setup. The great thing about this project is that it’s a piece of decor that stores well and will actually last. You can do this project with any variation of colors to suit any occasion. For it to be super versatile, I chose to do a rainbow with two shades of each color. You could do a Christmas version with red, white, green, and gold or a Halloween version with black, orange, white, and purple! You could make one with dark and light blue or pink and white for a baby shower or make one with a sports team’s colors to wear at the games. The possibilities with the felt boa are as versatile as your imagination!
Step 1
Cut your felt sheets along either end into 1 inch strips.
At first, I tried to cut the felt with a knife and ruler because I much prefer the precision of a knife over scissors. It failed miserably… I had to sharpen or change my knife blade after almost every single cut. I tested every pair of scissors in my house before I found a pair that cut the felt nicely. I suggest buying a new pair of fabric scissors if you don’t already have some! If you still prefer to use a knife, just be prepared to change the blade a lot! Felt is very difficult to cut without tension on the fabric.
Step 2
Cut the 1 inch strips along the short ends into roughly 3 inch pieces.
Repeat steps 1 & 2 with each sheet of felt and organize the pieces by color so you can make an assembly line later. These first two steps will honestly take quite a while, so mentally prepare yourself or enlist a crafting buddy!
Step 3
Cut yourself a pretty long piece of yarn – it’s always better to have extra string to cut off than not enough in the first place. Start with twice as much as you want the length of your boa to be. I started with 6 feet so I’d have 3 feet of yarn to work with.
Thread your yarn darner and double up the yarn.
You can use any kind of yarn for this project, but keep in mind that you’ll have to pull it through the felt at double the width, so don’t start with something too thick unless you have a super thick darner (needle).
Step 4
Fold each piece of felt in half like bowtie pasta and thread it onto the yarn.
Step 5
Thread each subsequent “bowtie” onto the yarn in alternating directions.
Do this in whichever pattern you’d like until you’ve used all of your felt strips.
Step 6
Cut off your needle and thread the ends through one of the beads.
Step 7
Tie a knot around each side of the bead to close off the loop.
Do this for both ends of the boa. You can leave as much yarn space as you need to hang your boa across a space – I left about 4 inches on either side of the boa.
Step 8
There you have it: a felt boa!