First Time Felting + Artec360 Lazy Cat Felting Kit

After swooning over hyper-realistic felt art by some professional felting artists, I wanted to try felting. There was something about that stabbing sound (I promise I’m not creepy) and how the wool comes together that’s soooo satisfying.

After hearing me marvel about felting, Anth surprised me with a kit!

Here’s my experience!

The Artec360 Lazy Cat Needle Felting Kit

This is an affiliate link, if you buy the kit through this link, I would receive a tiny commission at no cost to you. 🙂

The kit contains the following:

• Instruction in English
• Wool
• 3 felting needles in a tube (According to the description, the sizes are 1x9cm/3.5″, 1×8.5cm/3.3″, 1x8cm/3″)
• 2 finger guards
• 1 high-density foam mat

According to the product description, the wool are 70s (19um) top grade merino wool, and the finger guards are leather guards.

Wool: When I worked with the wool, I couldn’t help wondering if they’re synthetic fibers. The fibers are so straight, homogeneous and smooth, making it look like acrylic. I love crocheting with wool and this felt different. Maybe it’s more processed? If you guys know now to tell the difference, please teach me in the comments!

Finger guards: They’re artificial leather. I don’t expect real leather at this price, but I prefer honesty in description.

Instructions: The instruction provided the steps to create the toy, but not which needles to use, and the measurement are slightly off.

Pros:
Affordably priced.
Kit provides everything you need to complete the project.
Instructions provided clear steps to help a first-timer complete the project.

Cons:
Unsure if materials are as advertised.
Measurements provided were inaccurate.
Light brown wool provided was insufficient for me.

Impressions

For a complete beginner, the instruction in the Artec360 Lazy Cat Felting Kit was clear and detailed enough to help me complete the project.

As mentioned, it doesn’t tell us which needle to use when, but basic felting seems pretty intuitive. I assumed that the thinner the needle, the finer and tighter you can get the wool to come together. It seemed to be right.

Stabbing is straightforward. The only thing to be careful about is to stab straight in and out so you don’t break the needle. (I didn’t break any.)

And of course, don’t forget to wear your finger guards.

My lack of knowledge was fine because this was a beginner piece. But I’m sure it’ll be a different story felting intricate advanced pieces.

The hardest part for me is making the sizes of the different parts proportional. The steps in the instruction worked for me, but the measurement wasn’t accurate.

For example:

• They specified 6x1.5cm for the body, my body turned out too long and skinny!
• The arms and legs were supposed to be 4x1.5cm and 4.5x1.5cm respectively, but tell me how that can be right!
• They specified 1.5 cm for ears, I ended up with really large ears…

I ran out of the wool color for the body parts and wasn’t able to fix the proportions. Here’s the end product:

So my cat is nothing like the cute chubby cat they advertised, but I blame it on my inexperience too.

My cat’s face looks more like a combination of koala bear and cat! Its ears are amusingly big, and it’s so elongated! Also, its paws can be more defined. Nevertheless, I find it adorable and didn’t mind the imperfections at all.

Conclusion

Felting: As with all crafts, you’ll definitely need to be patient to felt. It took me many hours to complete this, but it was pretty fun. If you like ASMR and crafting, you’ll probably enjoy this. And seeing the finished product is just delightful!

The Kit: Despite the errors in the measurements given, I think it would’ve been possible to make a cat like the one advertised if you’ve a good feel for proportion, or if you’ve done similar projects before.
I’m sure there’re better kits out there, but if you’re a newbie like me and aren’t sure if you’ll want to felt in the long term, this is a decent testing kit for the price.

It’s been too long since I posted a craft post! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this one, isn’t my cat just funny looking? Maybe next time I’ll get a kit from Etsy. If I do, would you like another post on felting? Do let me know!