Needle Felting Kit by Sinco

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Reported by Nan Beyer


Today I am going to review one of Sinco's Needle Felting Dog Kit's.



What is needle felting you might ask? One takes dry loose wool fibers (also called roving) and "needles" the fibers together to form a product or material. Note, the needles are extremely sharp and are barbed. The "punching" of the wool interlocks the loose fibers into material or project. (Please see the below video for a needle felting demonstration).



I started needle felting after reading the book Fleece Dog: A Little Bit of Magic Created with Raw Wool and a Special Needle by Nobuko Nagakubo creator and owner of Fleecedog.com by Sinco. The whole process facinated me. Take raw wool and needle it into a dog? Amazing.




In order to properly needle felt, you will need the following:

• barbed felting needles(multiple sizes and types)
• loose wool also called wool roving
• wire spindle and string or pipe cleaners but it may not have the same effect
• needle cushion or mat
• eyes and/or embroidery floss
• awl or Phillips screwdriver if you do not own an awl tool
• needlenose plyers

If you are new to felting and do not want to purchase all of the above, Sinco sells various needle felting dog kits. I did the fawn pug dog kit. This kit will include everything except the needle mat, awl and plyers. Out of the aforementioned, you really do need a needle mat and I bought mine from Clover. I also bought extra needle holders from Clover and Sinco. As well as extra wire spindle and finishing needles from Sinco. I highly recommend buying extra needles because they break rather easily.

The Sinco kit comes with fantastic instructions. Each step coordinates to a package with a color coded sticker and the drawing are easy to read.

At a high level - this is how you felt and create the dog:

Form the skeleton of your project with plyers.
Slip on the string to protect the pointy ends

























Wrap the fleece around the skeleton and start "needling" to bind the loose fiber together. The fiber will go from silkey smooth to a bit rough looking - however the fiber is still very soft so don't think it feels like "scratch wool". You will see in the picture two types of needle holders. The single needle holder by Sinco and the Clover Needle Holder. I didn't like the Sinco needle holder at all because the needles mostly bent and broke. It was easier to not use the needle holder and just use the needle by its self. However, if you have to felt the body and make sure it binds together, use the 5 needle Clover holder. That holder has a protected sheath so that you do not hurt your fingers. You will see in the below video that felting can go very fast, hence you need protection from breaking needles if that occurs.























Continue adding layers of fleece on the body with multple colors so as to form your project. I recommend using a single "finishing" needle to get the fine details created.

































































(Gosh I did such a good job, I don't know which one below is the real pug. :) )







































All joking aside, this is a very fun project. The most frustating thing for me was not getting the feet *just right* and the needles breaking. Also, I do not recommend this craft for kids. These needles are DANGEROUS. I bled a few times which was not fun. If I knew they sold felting needle thimbles, I would have bought one.

Pros:

• Very user friendly instructions that are color coded and drawings that are easy to read.
• Everything that you need to create a fleece dog is included in the kit except the needle mat.
• I like the fact that I could buy extra eyes and wire. The quality of the wire, eyes and wool roving exceeded my expectations.

Cons:

• The Sinco needle holder is not the best. The needles broke more when using the holder than not using the holder.
• I wish I could buy Sinco products in the United States but the shipping from Japan is extremely quick.
• This is not a kid friendly project. If a kiddy wants to do this, adult supervision is a MUST.

The Sinco pug dog kit retails for $21.40 USD and you can only purchase this kit from Sinco. However you can buy the book, Fleece Dog: A Little Bit of Magic Created with Raw Wool and a Special Needle by Nobuko Nagakubo at Amazon or any local book store. You can also buy Raw Wool at Joannes, SuperBuzzy or Hobby Lobby. If you don't want to order your needles from Japan, Clover sells their own brand as well mat's, roving, patterns.

Tutorial on how to Needle Felt:

Do you have this product? Let us know what you think! What are your tips and tricks for making it work? We can't wait to hear from you!