Easter Crafts: Needle-Felted Chicks

You will need the following materials:

• Foam mat
• Wool roving
• Felting needle
• Wood skewer
• Needle
• Black upholstery thread
• Sheet of felt (to use for beak)
• 34-gauge wire
• 20-gauge black-coated craft wire
• Needle-nose pliers
• Awl
• Fabric glue
• Cosmetic blush (optional)
• Mini fabric flowers or mini hats (for embellishing)
• Egg cup

To make the head, pull off tuft of roving and wind into a ball. Jab with a felting needle.

To make the body, wrap wool roving around wood skewer; pull off skewer. Jab with a felting needle, sculpting it as you go into an egg shape.

To make the breast a different color, needle-felt a thin layer of roving. Add a bit more roving to one end to form tail. Jab with a felting needle.

To make the wings, needle-felt a ball and flatten it into a disc, tapering one end. Needle-felt wing to body.

To add eyes, poke a needle threaded with black upholstery thread up through bottom of head, exiting where you the want eye to be; thread bead onto needle.

Go back in and out through where you'd like second eyeball to be; thread bead; go back in and out through where you want the beak to be.

To make the beak, fold felt in half and cut a triangle. Attach beak using same thread as used for eyes and bring thread out through bottom and tie off.

Attach head to body using 34-gauge wire threaded through a needle. Insert needle up through bottom of bird body and out through the top where you want the head to sit. Go up through the head, then and down the head, through body and out where you entered. Twist the wire very tightly to secure. Use pliers to curl up the wire tightly against the bottom of the body. Take a tuft of wool to cover dent in head and wire at bottom.

To make feet, cut two 7-inch lengths of 20-gauge black-coated craft wire. About half-way down, bend wire around needle-nose pliers. Make three "toes" and then wrap wire; twist, then bend up at "ankle"; cut "leg" 1-inch from ankle. Snip excess wire at ankle.

Use an awl to make two holes in bottom of body. Put a dab of fabric glue onto leg. Insert legs into holes. Allow to dry.

Sew feet to a larger felt ball with upholstery thread. Glue ball into egg cup. To embellish, glue a mini fabric flower (or mini hat) onto bird head and to the rim of the egg cup, where it meets the felt ball. You can use a little bit of cosmetic blush to give the chick rosy cheeks.

Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/270996/needle-felted-chicks?czone=holiday%2Feaster-center%2Feaster-crafts-and-decor&gallery=274529&slide=270996&center=276968