Beginner Needle Felting Tutorial: Make a Mushroom Pincushion out of your wool scraps

This is a lovely little needle felting beginner tutorial: a needle-felted mushroom pincushion design. Use up wool scraps, any wire you have to hand (pip cleaners work really well) and an old saucer or bowl or teacup - whatever you fancy!

We used a small terracotta plant tray but any ceramic dish or saucer will do.

STEP 1: Twist a small section of wool into a circle shape, roughly 3cm wide. Stab until the fibres felt together, tucking any loose edges in as you go. Turn it over and felt the other side until you have a small disc of felted wool.

STEP 2: Add a twist of orange wool to the centre and gently stab to attach it to the disc. Then press more firmly to push little dots of colour through to the cap of the mushroom..

STEP 3: Wind some white wool strands around a bit of pipe cleaner, smoothing the ends so that it clings in place. Leave some fluffy wool at one end.

Step 4: Attach the fluffy ends to the cap with some firm stabs all around the edge. Trim away any fluff from the cap of the mushroom where your needle has gone right through. You can use some sharp scissors for this.

STEP 5: Bunch up some wool scraps and needle felt them together to make a little dome and then needle-felt the mushroom in place by stabbing around the bottom of the stalk. Use scraps of leftover wool in different colours to make other mushrooms and attach them in a little cluster.

Repurpose a ceramic dish or cup for your dome to sit in. Use hot glue, double-sided tape or velcro patches to stick it in place.

As well as making flat-topped mushrooms, you could have a go at making little toadstools. Just roll up a small piece of red wool, felt it into a little dome, stabbing firmly into the base to make a cup. Attach the stalk in the same way and then felt tiny twists of white wool to add the dots.