Using Odds and Ends to Make a Felted Cat Ball

Two intentions here. One is a straightforward description of how I make a felted cat ball. Second is some thoughts on how you can use miscellaneous materials as well as repurpose odds and ends to create something.

To make a felted cat ball I start with a plastic ball that I purchase. To have the final felted ball make a jingle as it rolls, you need to have a bell (or something similar) inside some spherical object so the bell can move around and make a sound. (I have tried felting directly around a couple of bells but I never get a good jingling sound this way.) I have not figured out an easy way to make something myself to encase a bell - so I just purchase these plastic balls that have a bell in them.

Materials to make a felted cat ball

Since the final step in this process will be wet felting, I first need to have a surface that fiber can wet felt to. Trying to wet felt fiber around a plastic ball that when finished looks uniform is possible - but tricky. So I hit on the idea of first wrapping the ball in yarn. For the yarn I use some yarn composed of wool or wool/mohair. I use a handspun yarn that is left over from some project - or perhaps a hand spun yarn that did not turn out the way I wanted.

Winding yarn around the ball

Before wet felting, there is one more step. Take the fiber that will be used to wet felt and first lightly needle felt it to the ball wrapped in yarn. This will make it easier to wet felt and achieve a nice rounded form - essentially by lightly needle felting first the fiber will not slide around and also will felt better to the yarn. This is why I also acquire a plastic ball that has holes. The needle pushes the fiber into the yarn and thru the holes - joining the fiber well to the yarn and to the plastic ball. Now for the fiber I use the remnants of fiber that I pull off a drum carder when I make a batt. Most readers will not have fiber like this, but you might have remnants of fiber from various projects you can use. The key is using fiber that has been teased and spread out and will easily wet felt without making ridges or creases.

Needle felt loose fiber to the ball wrapped in yarn

The final step is to wet felt the fiber to make a nice felted ball - for the cats to play with. Get some hot water and soap and roll the fiber encased ball a few minutes (usually 5 minutes or so is enough for me) to create a solid good looking felted ball.

And there you have it - a nicely felted cat ball for your feline friends. And perhaps the discussion of how I did this and used other items (a plastic ball with a bell, hand spun yarn left over from a project and fiber from a drum carder) will give you ideas on how you could reuse materials you have to make something new.

Felted cat ball