How to Make a Wet Felted Pansy

This step by step felting tutorial takes you through the steps of making a felt flower using silver beading wire to help support the petals and stems. This pretty flower can be used on it's own in a bud vase or used on a garment or as decoration for a felted hat.

A sander can be utilized to aid the felting process or alternatively the project can be rolled as usual between a sheet or bubble wrap or between a bamboo mat. My preferred method is to use a bamboo mat.

• Paper Pansy template
• Scissors
• Stirling silver beading wire Fine grade silver wire (for large flowers use a slightly thicker wire)
• A soft felt tip pen
• Paper
• A small quantity wool roving in colours of your choice
• Washing up liquid or grated olive oil soap diluted in hot soapy water
• Bubble wrap
• A Sheet of thick plastic if using a sander.
• A palm sander (optional) This may be substituted with a bamboo blind or bubble wrap.

• Trace the image below.
• Enlarge the image if required by simply increasing the magnification of your computer screen.
• Use a soft tip felt pen to trace the image.
• Cut the petals out.
• The cut out template will give you a very good indication of the size of the wire frames which will be needed for each petal.

• Once traced the template can be enlarged or made smaller using your printer.
• Most printers these days have this capability.
• Follow your individual Printer Manual Instructions to find out how to enlarge or reduce the size of the image or use the method described above to trace the image using a sheet of computer paper.

• Cut out the individual Petals and enlarge those which are shown to be hiding one behind the another.
• Lengthen the short ones behind to make those the same size as the petals which are visible from the front.

• Lay the petal down onto a mat.

• Trace the outline of the pansy using the soft wire.
• This should go right around the edges of the petals but leave a length on both sides which can be knotted as shown to form the stems of the flower.
• Please see the images below.

• Knot the wire as shown below.

• Measure the length of the wire required to go around each petal.
• Add a couple of inches at the lower end to make the stem.
• Knot or twist the wire to form the shape of each Petal.

• Cover the petal frames using wool roving.
• Pull thin long strands from the roving.
• Split the fibres if they are too thick.

• Choose colours which replicate those of real Pansies. Study some of the beautiful images found all over the Internet. Generally, the two top petals at the top of the Pansy are almost always plain in colour though even this is variable, some pansies have petals in one colour with just a touch of yellow at the throat.

• Cover the wire frame using a fine layer of wool roving.

• Cover the wire frame with a second layer of wool roving.
• This should be placed at 90 degrees to the 1st layer.

• If the wire is a little on the thin side, place a sliver of wool roving across the petal to help support the petal as is shown below.

• With the squeeze bottle filled with hot soapy water, drop some of the water into the center of the petal.

• Wet the wool in the centre of the frame.
• It should be sufficient to wet all of the wool once the edges have been folded in.

• Use your fingers to fold in the dry edges to form a neat edge.

• Below the wool fibres can be seen to be neatly folded around the metal frame.

• This image shows the five petals ready to have a decorative layer added to the surface of the wool.

• Add a decorative layer.
• The top two petals were left blank.
• This is typical of many of the varieties of pansies though there are very many variations on this theme.

• Use the silver wire to make the sepal in the same way as the petals were made.

• Place the wire frame on the opened out wool roving and wrap it around the top

• Wet the Sepal and roll on the mat.

• Roll the wet wool until it felts hard up against the metal.

• Add a little hot and cold water so as to quicken the shrinking process.

• Assemble the pieces together on a sheet of bubble wrap.

• Cover the assembled pieces with a thick sheet of plastic or a piece of bubble wrap.
• Sand well with a palm sander using all the safety instructions associated with using a sander near water.
• Alternatively, put the assembled pieces between a bamboo blind and roll well in all directions or cover with bubble wrap and rub well in the usual way.

• Never allow the sander to come into contact with water and don't use a sander which has a dust bag.

• Use a thick sheet of plastic or even a child's play mat will suffice.

• Sand, rub or roll the items on both sides.
• Start by vibrating the petals for about three minutes on each side.
• Keep on changing the direction in which you roll the woollen fibres if using a bamboo mat or bubble wrap.

• Sand, rub or roll on both sides.

• Dip the petals in hot and then cold water and add a little white vinegar to the final rinse water.

• Pat the petals dry and then assemble the pieces.
• Twist the wires together and if desired cover the stems with thin layer green wool roving.
• Rub and roll the stems until they shrink back against the wire.
• Assemble the petals with the sepal in the middle.

• Pansies are edible and fragrant.
• They are part of the Viola family which includes pansies and violas of which there are over 500 varieties
• Pansies are single with five rounded petals.
• Blue and yellow pansies have the strongest perfume or scent.
• The wonderful scent of pansies does appear to be stronger early in the morning or later in the evening
• They are easy to grow from seed
• They are pretty much disease free
• Some varieties grow in Winter and others grow in Spring and Summer
• The flowers and the leaves are edible and are high in Vitamin A and C. They have a strong flavor and can be used to make syrup. They are used in salads and can flavor honey.
• The flowers can be used as a dye
• The Greeks are known to use Pansies in herbal medicine
• William Shakespeare was inspired to write about Pansies
• Pansies prefer to grow in full or partial sun
• Pansies are seldom bothered by pests