Felting Wool Animal Ear Hats (Using Resist Wet Felting Technique)

I make lots of felt. It keeps me sane. Someone asked me to make a bunny ear hat recently which made me want to make smaller more wearable animal ear hats. They are supper fun and while a bit time consuming not terribly complicated or expensive like some felting projects.

This is a wet felting project using a "resist." Which means all you really need is a pattern, soap, a few onces of wool and a bit of elbow grease.

3 oz feltable fiber Mostly merino roving and wool battings in these examples (inluding base and surface colors)

Fiber embelishments ( merino tencel and silk blends to add strength and shine, Mohair to add fuzzy texture to areas like ear tips

Pattern material (thin packing foam, thick plastic sheet, or rubber sheet)

Water proof surface ( plastic sheeting, a table, bubble wrap)

Bubble wrap, shelf linner, or netting to cover project as you roll and wet it down

Soapy water ( you can use bar soap, shampoo, body wash, or dish soap just make sure it's something your hands can stand contact with for hours)

Towels

I make large unisex sized hats since I'm not making them for a specific person. You don't need to be as exact as you might think because you can shape the hat as it shrinks. You draw a shape of a beanie style hat on a piece of foam sheet or plastic. 16 inches wide by 10 inches tall is big enough to create a hat for pretty much any adult. I add two flaps to the top where I intend to attach ears to give them a bit of structure by having two layers of felt at their base.

Most of my hats have a white base so I use 2 oz of pure Australian fine merino or maybe a bit over an oz of merino silk blend. ( If you want a very light hat like the blue one you can make the whole thing from less than 2 oz of a fine merino or merino/silk blend.)

You want to be able to make three very thin layers of wool with this roving. First lay the wool horizontally following the edge of the hat pattern (but leaving a gap) Then a layer vertically. Be sure to losely cover the ear flaps with fiber.

Then, sprinkle with soapy water. Place the netting or shelf liner on top carefully pressing down without disrupting the fibers. Wet thoroughly working the soapy water completely in.

Flip your project over. Tuck all lose fibers neatly around pattern edges except the ear tops. Then repeat the two layers.

Flip your project over back to the first side; then add your third layer. My third layer is a thin crosshatch layout. This is when I prefer to create the shape of my ears. You can make a paper pattern to follow as a guide for ear shape or you can just free form them. They should fully cover both side of the little flaps you left for ear placement. ( do not forget to crosshatch the fibers, as this will provide strength and structure.)

Make sure both side are layered evenly, filling in any thin spots as this the structure of your hat.

Lay out the pattern of color combinations you would like on your hat. You can use all sorts of feltable fibers.

In my pictures are a fox, wolf, and bear layout. You can see there are different fiber types and they all work. The orange is merino batting, the gray is unprocessed natural wool, and the blue is standard fine merino roving. They will produce different textures, but they all work.

The hats can be made as they are, but I like to add a little something to make them each more special. To the orange surface I added variegated merino and shiny tencel blend fibers. On the white surface I covered it with a silk merino blend. I like to add a bit of mohair to the ears so that they appear a bit fuzzy even after felting.

The grey layout utilizes shetland, alpaca, and mohair rovings to give the surface interest and texture.

Tuck stray fibers along the edges, smoothing them down. Make sure everything is precisely in place before laying your nettting on top. Thoroughly wet it down and gently begin to massage. Make sure your project is slippery with soapy water. Add more soap if you are not getting suds. You can just rub a bar of soap on top the net if that is easiest. Rub both sides, switching back and forth. Occasionally smooth and check the edges. you may rub pretty firmly on the flat areas. You can stop once both sides are a relatively uniform surface and the designs are not longer shifting just from you touching it.

Now that your piece is holding together you can begin to roll your hat. I like to start from the bottom rolling it up. Straighten and smooth back down after each direction of rolling. Roll from both front and back side. Then do side to side on both sides. I then roll top to bottom from both sides. As you do this your fibers will become emeshed. It will eventually start skrinking in the direction you are rolling. (This is how you will manage the size... by monitoring shrinkage.)

Once fibers are holding together you do not have to leave the pattern inside. You can continue rub more directly being sure to rub the edges to remove creases. Stick your hands inside and rub btween your hands now that fibres are no longer moving freely. Make sure no areas have been missed and keep it soapy while you make sure there is no more movement but everything has become like one fabric.

Squeeze and crumple the hat. Place in warm water. Not too warm because your hand needs to go in there. Rinsing it multiple times. Make sure to do this to all areas of the hat including the ears. This will help the felt shrink and firm.

Take hat back to your work space while warm and begin working the hat with soap again. Roll and rub hat vigorously from every angle. Make sure you unfold and rub the sides and edges obscuring the crease. Be mindful, the direction you rub will often shrink that direction so while you are smoothing take care of the shape.

Rinse thoroughly, roll between towels, and shape by pulling edges. If hat has not shrunk enough you may need to repeat the last step .

( If the hat is for you a great way to get a good fit is to place a bag or showercap over your hair and try on the hat.)

Straighten the edges by pulling into shape. Stretch and crease ears until you are satisfied with the shape. Shooth out any unwanted creases. You can even use an iron and pressing cloth to remove creases and shape.

Your hat should mostly be able to hold it's shape even though wet. Shape it how you want it to remain when dry. I often just blow up a ballon in the finished hat to insure the shape is what I intend. You can also stuff bags into the inside of the ears to help them dry in an upright position