How To Color Your Own Felt

~Friday Tutorial~

Happy Friday folks. I hope you've all had a lovely week thus far. 
The sun has been shining the last couple of days, and today looks like another beautiful sunshiney one ahead of us :) 

To kick off the weekend, I've prepared a little tutorial for you on how I color my own felt. 
I've had lots of questions regarding how I do this, so I hope you enjoy the following tips! 


Finding just the right color, especially in felt, can be really challenging. I started dying my own felt when I realized I could not find the pastel colors easily. So, I tried several methods, and although some were total flops, in the end, my experiment came up with some really helpful tips.

Below, you will find a how-to of two methods of dying felt, and the pros and cons of each.

~Dying Felt with Glimmer Mist or Other Spray Ink~

PROS: I love this method of dying felt, mostly because it is the quickest and easiest and requires for the least amount of color mixing and drying time. And the best part is that it's relatively mess free. The other nice thing is that it leaves the other side of the felt white, or slightly lighter than the front, depending on the thickness of felt you are using. This can be a fun design feature in some cases.

CONS: if you have an uneven spray nozzle, you will find splotches on your felt. Sometimes these splotches will blend out on their own, at other times, I like to take a q-tip and just lightly set it on the splotch, to soak up the excess ink. Either way, this is not a method that will always yield perfect, even results. For my crafting purposes, I don't mind this so much, as I can pick and choose the areas of the felt that I want to use.

HOW-TO: To begin, all you need are some ink mists, plastic bags to cover your working surface, white or off-white felt (you can use acrylic or wool), and some paper towels. In addition to using soft colors of mist, I recommend that the spray nozzle is at least two feet away from the felt, to create a fine, light mist.  Spraying from a further distance allows you to add more color as you go, making it easy to customize your shade, from pale and soft, to deep and dark. The drying time for such dying is about 15-40 minutes, depending on how much you saturate the felt. 


~Dying Felt with Fabric Dye~

PROS: This method yields minimal splotchiness, more even color coverage, and the felt will be fully colored through from front to back.

CONS: This method is a bit more involved and requires you to submerse the felt into the color of your choice, let it sit for a length of time and then air dry. I also find that the coloring is not as precise, as you have to do some trial and error as to how bold the colors will be, and it is much more difficult to deepen the colors as you can do with the first method. Also, the drying time increases significantly, with some felt taking up to an hour and a half to dry, depending on the thickness of the felt. In addition, it can be a rather messy process and prove difficult to find a proper drying method. I used a cooling rack with a plastic bag underneath to dry mine, so if you only have one or two of these lying around, it is more difficult do to mass dye jobs at once.

The other con is that fabric dye can be pricey, and I personally like to use what I have on hand. Seeing as my crafty collection is full of mists, and dye ink refills, I can easily mix up my own ink or use what I have on hand, as opposed to purchasing fabric dye.

HOW-TO: You will need fabric dye (such as RIT), water, a few bowls that you will not mind getting stained, paper towels, plastic bags, and a drying rack. Mix the colors according to the instructions, or simply mix to your liking. This is where the trial and error portion comes into play. You may want to have a few pieces of scrap felt to use to test the colors you have mixed to make sure that you like the final result.

Immerse the felt sheets into the dye, and let sit for a little while. I can't quite say how long, because I have never timed the process. I sort of just pull the sheets out when they "look right".

Lay the sheets out on a drying rack (I use a cooling rack to do this), with a bag or some protection underneath to catch all the little drips of color.

When using food or fabric dye, I usually mix up enough dye to work with several sheets of felt and do batches of the same color, as opposed to dying a multitude of colors at once, as can be done with the spray method.

I hope that this helps anyone who is wanting to give felt dying a try.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them below in the comments section!
I will answer them right below the comments :)

Here are just a few of my favorite projects using my hand-dyed felt




Bookmark with mini felt roses, and a felt heart border


Mini felt baggie covered with vintage lace, adorned with a felt pinwheel and felt heart border


Fancy felt gift envelope with two-tone felt and lots of layers and embellishments

These are some of my very favorite projects - I just love the warmth and texture that a little bit of felt adds.
I hope you'll give this tutorial a try and use it to create your very own felt projects! 

Wishing you all a lovely weekend, 

*Ivana*

11 comments

  1. Thanks for sharing your methods Ivana!! And thanks for the peek at your gorgeous creations!!

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  2. Thanks for the tips))) And the projects are amazing!

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  3. WOW!!!! your work is just so beautiful so soft and pretty. I am so glad I found you, thank you for sharing your fabulous talent and inspiring others. I just love your style. Karen xo

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  4. just gorgeous! i love to use felt as well!

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  5. Thank you so much for teaching us your techniques for dying felt. That is so generous of you! Your work is charming and I'd love to try dying some felt to use in accenting my paper crafts. Many thanks!

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  6. These are so incredibly sweet, Ivana! Thanks for the tutorial. I enjoy your cards so much!! <3

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  7. Thanks, Ivana...I've wondered about dying it, and the white felt is something I can actually get locally and even use a 40% coupon for!!!;) (Beautiful projects!)

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  8. A.maz.ing!!!
    Thanks for sharing Ivana~
    Am I brave enough to try?! :)
    The book mark and enve's are beyond gorgeous!!!!!
    I love love that idea.
    I have made env's with paper - but never tried felt!
    What you've done here are little 'masterpieces'!
    You ALWAYS inspire me~
    Thank you~

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  9. Just stumbled on this blog and was absolutely blown away by the amazing design and just felt it all the way to my heart. I think the photography compliments those beautiful pieces of art very well!

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    1. This is so incredibly kind of you!! Thank you so much for the incredibly sweet note!! I just want to say thank you for your support and I hope I can keep creating things that inspire you :) Please feel free to say hi anytime and let me know if you have a creative blog - I'd love to check it out! Sending hugs!

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