Felted Snakes
Easy To Make

Wondering how to make felted snakes? That's why you're here, right? Oh - they're easy, here's what you need...

• Wool fiber
• Pipe cleaners
• Soap
• Hot & cold water
• Needle & thread (or glue & eyes)

Here's what to do to make your felted snakes...

1. Twist your pipe cleaners together to get the length of snake you want (use 2 or more twisted together for extra strength). Fold over the ends by about an inch and twist them to hold them in place.
2. Pull off some wool fiber, tease it out gently and lay it on a flat surface. Place another layer on top at right angles to the original layer. About 3 layers should give you a decent snake as the fiber will shrink and thicken up. You may want to make the 'head end' a little thicker. Be sure to have your fiber layers about 2-3 inches longer than the pipe cleaners at both ends to allow for shrinkage.
3. Lay your pipe cleaner snake on top and gently roll the fiber around the pipe cleaners.
4. Wet your hands one by one with hot soapy water and begin to roll the snake back and forth between your hands. Work gently at first then more firmly as you feel the snake thicken and firm up - this will take a little while. Keep the head end a little thicker and taper off the tail end to more of a point. Be careful to keep the fiber around the pipe cleaners, especially when the wool begins to thicken and shrink (this part is called fulling).
5. Work the wool fibers into felt until when you take your hands away there are no odd hairs sticking up.
6. Rinse your snake under cold water and squeeze out the soap. Rinse until you see no more soap, squeeze out thoroughly (don't wring)and allow your snake to dry.
7. When your snake is dry you can give it a face by either glueing on some wiggly plastic eyes or by stitching directly into the felt. Glued on eyes will 'stick out', stitched eyes will 'sink in' You can also use felting needles to work a face or a pattern into the felt as I did in the pictures. You literally just poke your felting needle repeatedly through the yarn or fibers and the snake until the fibers intermingle.

I said felted snakes were easy to make didn't I? The pipe cleaners in the middle will mean you can coil them up too.

Be sure not to give your felted snakes to babies or small children as the glued eyes may pull off, or they may get scratched by the pipe cleaners if the felting isn't very even.

They'd be great for helping to decorate a kids bedroom with a rainforest or jungle theme. Get the kids to help make their own felted snakes in all different colors (if they're old enough).

• Loop them together to make a chain.
• Twist them around a curtain pole or bedpost.
• Use them as curtain tie-backs.

There's a few ideas of how you can use your felted snakes other than as toys. What ideas do you have? Do you want to make a suggestion? Contact me and if you have a cool idea I'll put it on this page with a mention of you! I'd love to hear from you.

Check out these other easy felt projects.

Want to try making wool felt beads?

Return to Homepage from Felted Snakes.