Love to play with various mediums? Take part in Double Trouble: Mixed Media Raccoons! Needle felt two adorable baby raccoons peeking out from a stitched tree hollow.
Using wool and felting needles, you will create baby raccoons with dimensionality and expression. You will learn the basics of needle felting, including techniques for molding wool into shapes. While the project is suitable for those who are new to needle felting, participants will enjoy exploring techniques for creating life-like eyes and incorporating fine details, such as whiskers.
Add texture to your tree hollow through stitches, thread choices, and yarn. Did you know that those heavier threads like a pearl #8 will go through your bobbin? Students will learn how to create a meandering zig-zag stitch, and engage in bobbin work and couch threads and yarn. Straight stitches are also effective.
Karen will demonstrate how to use colored pencils and pastel pencils to shade the hollow. You are welcome to use other mediums as well. Acrylic paints mixed with textile medium, inktense pencils, acrylic inks, and even crayons work well.
You may choose to frame your picture in a frame with an 8-inch by 8-inch opening or an 8-inch by 10-inch opening.
Mixed Media Raccoon Supply Sheet
Basic Sewing Supplies: Students will need a sewing machine in good working order with the ability to do a zig-zag stitch, open-toed foot or walking foot preferred, 80/14 or 90/14 topstitch needle preferred, a pen, ruler, scissors, cutting matt, rotary cutter, super glue or other fabric glue, spray adhesive, iron, and a pressing sheet,
Tree and Hollow Supplies: Tree fabric (9 inches by 11 inches), hollow fabric (9 inches by 11 inches), black fabric (5.5 inches by 7 inches - the interior of the hollow), double-sided fusible such as Steam-A-Seam (5.5 inches by 7 inches and 9 inches by 11 inches), backing fabric (optional), two 9 inches by 11-inches pieces of stabilizer (Totally Stable), two 9 inches by 11-inches pieces of batting (Thermolam), brown yarn to go around the hollow twice, and various threads to stitch the trunk of your tree (such as cotton thread in medium and dark brown, Valdani Pearl Cotton Thread Size 8 threads in brown and light brown (I like their “Muddy Bark” and “Skin Tones”), or any thread/yarn that you prefer. You may wish to couch a size three pearl cotton to the hollow. Fray Check may be useful if you choose to frame your picture as an 8 by 8. Alternatively, you may stitch the edge of the artwork.
Optional: Supplies to Color Your Hollow
Color your hollow with colored pencils or pastel pencils. I used Prismacolor pencils (sienna brown #945, burnt ochre #943, dark umber #947, and Carbothello pastel pencil #1400/640. I used a colorless colored pencil blender. You will accomplish much the same effect with textile medium and a paintbrush. Textile medium of your choice and an inexpensive paint brush to apply the textile medium.
If you don’t have colored pencils, there are many other mediums you can use: fabric paints, acrylic paints with textile medium, crayons, ink pens, acrylic inks, watercolor pencils, etc. The sky is the limit and feel free to use what you have on hand!
Supplies to Make the Raccoons
Short fiber wool in shades of the raccoon - Black, Dark Gray, Medium Gray, White, and Core Wool. I used Bulky Carded Corriedale Thunder and Tornado, 38-gauge needles, felting pad, horsehair or monofilament for whiskers, and felt (4 by 8 inches), a needle with an eye large enough to fit horsehair or monofilament thread, and a frame with an 8 by 10-inch opening or an 8 by 8-inch opening.
**Please Note: I prefer short fiber wool raving than roving with a long (4 or more inches) staple length. For this project, it would be difficult to utilize wool with a long staple length.
Optional: Clover pen or multi-tools. You can complete this project with only needles, but a multi-tool will help you to felt in the wool more quickly. It is absolutely not a requirement for this class).
