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Cleathero CreationsI am needle felting a face and it was on my prototype it FELL OFF!!
it was on a acrylic fur stuffed with ginned cotton so what did I do wrong.
And another quetion for thos that needle felt a face do you just design a ball shape and needle felt onto that or do you still shape the head to a bear shape.
DoodlebearsBronwen I have never needlefelted on to anything other than mohair so I don't know if acrylic fur has a tightly woven backing to hold the needlefelting or not. Compare the backing of the acrylic fur to some of mohair and see if the backing is as tightly woven. If this is not the case then the wool will not hold to well and it will come away. To answer the second part of your question ...well it depends what look you are trying to get. If you just want to cover the existing face lightly then yes you can use a bear shaped head but if you want to sculpt cheeks etc. then you don't want much of a muzzle on the face and you can build it with wool felting. Good luck and don't forget to show us when you are finished.
Hugs Jane.
LuxembearsBrownen, I agree with Jane. I have never felted onto acrylic fur fabric. One thing you could try is to sew some anchors, prefelted peices onto the face. Also make sure you trim down the areas you will be felting onto.
Let us know how it turns out for you.
Cleathero CreationsThis was a prototype and won't b doing anything wonderful really
but thatnks I wil make sure I do so!
Charlotte Des Roches DesignsI have never tried NFing onto anything other than wet felted pieces, but what just came to mind when I read that the face fell off, was how about if you were to make a NFed piece to place inside of the head behind where you will be making the face, so when you work on the outside, there will be wool inside for the face to attach to. I think the piece you NF for inside the head should be pretty firmly felted so it doesn't felt much when you work on the face. Dunno if this would work, but it's a thought.
Hugs,
Posts: 8,574
Matilda Huggington-beareBronwen!!!! the problem is the GINNED COTTON. You will have to remove it and fill with either orlon flock or wool noil. I know this from experience. I had the same problem with MABEL.
You can use your ginned cotton for any part of the critter that will not be recieving any needle work.
It is impossible to even embroider a decent nose with that stuffing. I'm surprised that you havent broken needles on this GC. I havent as yet NF on to plush but have taken on board advice from others here who have. So I know that isnt the problem. Follow Judis instructions. We all know that we wont go wrong listening to her. 
With Mabel , I removed the GC from her muzzle area and replaced it with wool noil. Then filled the rest of the Head with GC. Also as stated by the ladies, save what you have done and do ankoring stitches.
AND if you havent already done so , I highly reccommend Judi's NF'ing Class.(big grin).
spotya possum, hope it turns out well for you
Wendy
Cleathero CreationsThanks dear.
Well I will be attempting my second prototype really soon. Just want a days break before heading onto it. Made some changes and will try the different filling. Thanks muchly all!
Cleathero CreationsWill poly flock work too?
'Bear' Bottoms OriginalsHi Bronwen,
I NF onto acrylic/woven back synthetic, and have never had any problems. I am assuming that poly flock is similar to/the same as polyfil and that is what I fill my heads with, so you shouldn't have any problems with it. With your next one, just make sure that when you are poking into the acrylic fur, poke nice and deep so that your wool fibers are indeed penetrating into the filling inside the head.
Kimberly W.
'Bear' Bottoms OriginalsP.S. Kim Bee also NFs onto synthetic fur really well, so I'll bet you could drop her a line and she'd be more than happy to let you know what she does!
kimberly W.
Posts: 8,574Wendy, you will have to explain as there are so many different levels here. For instance, thanks to my friend Judy, I have done felting onto mohair and onto Sassy's wonderful mini fabric-but never onto anything else-and the filling was kapok on the minis and polyfill on the moahir. So I am, of course, confused. What else is new?
the problem is the GINNED COTTON
Cleathero Creationsginned cotton is cotton...
naturtal cotton you know the stuff that looks like cotton balls
BUT it has been cleaned and deseeded
I am needle felting a face and it was on my prototype it FELL OFF!!
it was on a acrylic fur stuffed with ginned cotton so what did I do wrong..
I can just imagine this, did you think you were taking part in the French Revolution, and it was Marie Antoinette!!!!
Not sure what could have gone wrong except that the needle was not splitting the fibres to mesh everything together, so either the wrong needle or the acrylic does not work. Still very new to this myself, will see what the others have to say and learn aswell.
Lynette
Matilda Huggington-beareI bought the GINNED COTTON from Gerrys a few years ago( by mistake). I thought I was buying the orlonflock. Which is recycled fabric. Bronwen has kindly posted a pic of GC. It is hard to stuff. I find if you arent paying attention it has a habit of separating in the body. I also found that I wasnt able to pull my needle through when embroidering the nose. So I had to remove the head unstuff and refill with the orlon flock. And try again.
When I made Mabel(floppy eared Kangaroo) I forgot about the problems I had with the GC. So when I started NFting her face I found that my needle wouldnt penetrate. Then Kchink Kchink :doh: I remembered.
I'm in the habit of finishing the heads these days before attachment. I have found away of using this horrid stuff up, by only using polyfill, orlon flock and /or wool noil for the areas that will get needle treatment.
AND then using the GINNED COTTON for the other areas. ( I have 5 kilos of this stuff.)
The Fibres seem tooo dense for the needle to pass through, Dilu. The more GC the bigger the resistence.
Even putting in eyes is difficult. I have a needle here which I keep meaning to photogragh. You wouldnt believe how mutilated it is.
I only know what I have experienced. Which I'm sure is more than the manufacturer. (cheeky)
But no more than that. I would love to hear what any one else has experienced with GC. If your experience is good, then please let us know.
I was given a filling by Gerrys which is like spaghetti. It is wonderfuly soft. I like using that for NFing. As a stuffing that is. For more wee littly heads, I also use the left over bits of wool batting. I use my sissors quite a lot when felting so have a lot of tiny scraps that I cant use for felting. I save them up and use for my mini heads.
No waste in this house.
Ok thats about it. spotyas, Wendy
The problem was not your felting. It would have been the ginned cotton you stuffed the bear with. The filament( fibre length) of the ginned cotton is very short, so you would have found it ni on impossible to knit the fibres together. Its best to use polyfil as stuffing.
lanie x
