Tutorial: Needle Felted Bad Piggies

Ever since the arrival of my iPad Stephen has become obsessed with Angry Birds and... enemies. Armed with just the right shade of green fibre I set out to make him his own bad piggy. Here's how.

Trying to keep this dude away from my eggs

Skill Level: Beginner
Time Taken: One Episode of Gilmore Girls
Materials:

• Roving in a lime green, forest green, white and black
• Needle Felting Needles. I used a 32 Gauge for the initial shape and 40 gauge for anything that shows
• Foam mat or whatever surface you use to keep safe

Colours Of Pig

 And we're off...

First make a rough ball, we're looking for a size just smaller than a golf ball.

Then flatten the ball slightly by pressing down on the top and felting it down.

You want to end up with a squished oval.

Next layer a small knob of roving on top and felt into place.

Cover the base with a final, fine layer of the lime roving. It should now look more like a pear without it's stem.

Next we're going to make the ears. You want to make a disk roughly the size of your little finger tip. Make a second one the same size.

Next add a tiny ball of the forest green to the bottom edge of the ears.

Attach the ears by holding them onto the body and felting the bottom edges down. Remember that the two ears should be positioned asymmetrically.

Now you have a body with ears. Don't worry if it's getting a little misshapen, we can fix that at the end.

Next it's time to make the snout. This is the biggest disk we're going to make but it's still going to be only a couple of mil bigger than the ears. Squash it slightly to make an oval.

Add the nostrils by making a small ball of black and flattening it against the main bit of the snout as you felt it. Again remember that the nostrils are asymmetrical.

Attach the completed snout to the body so that the top of the snout hits the centre of the body.

Next the eyes. Make two small disks in white just smaller than the ears. As we did with the nostrils; roll a ball of black to make the pupils. The pupils are also positioned asymmetrically, so the eyes appear to be looking in different directions.

Attach the eyes to the body so the top of them is just above the top of the snout.

Finnish up by fixing any lumps and bumps, and snipping any wispy bits you hate. Name the piggy. Try not to throw any birds at your hard work. And please let me know if you make one.