Felt Ball Coasters

Have you ever had one of those projects that you’ve wanted to do forever, but for one reason or another, you’ve just never done? And then when you do it, it is so easy and turns out so awesome that you kind of want to kick yourself for not doing it sooner?

Yeah, these felt ball coasters are one of those projects.

I have been slightly obsessed with felt balls for ages. I just think they’re so cute, and they come in such fun, happy colors. For a while, I considered getting some wool roving and making them myself, but then I remembered that I’m super lazy and that’s a lot of work. So, no.

So I kept saying that I was going to buy some, but I never did. Then a few weeks ago, I saw some felt ball garlands on Jane or PickYourPlum or one of those daily deal sites, and they were adorable, and I decided that I needed some felt balls in my life. So I finally decided to order some and go to town. 

I did a little bit of research to figure out the best place to order them, and I finally decided on a site called Felt Ball & Rugs. The company is actually located in Nepal, and all the felt balls are handmade by Nepalese craftswomen. They prohibit child labor and their mission is to help these married Nepalese women earn their own money and become more independent. Which is pretty much just awesome. And you can choose your own colors, and they are crazy cheap. I was shocked at how quickly they came, too. I think it only took about 3 or 4 days for them to get here! 

I will say that the shipping is pretty high, so if you’re only going to get a few, I would suggest trying Etsy or even Amazon. For me, it worked out to be cheaper to order through Felt Ball & Rugs, even with the high shipping, because I was ordering so many. {I ordered a couple of different sizes for a bunch of various projects! Stay tuned…} I ordered a total of 715 felt balls, so with $30 shipping, that worked out to approximately an additional $0.04 per ball. So the 1 cm balls were about $0.10 each, while the 2 cm balls were about $0.14 each. Most of the 1 cm balls on Etsy are around $0.15 each not including shipping, which is still pretty reasonable, so just figure out where it makes most sense for you to order. And if you know of a better or more inexpensive place to order from, by all means, let me know in the comment section below! 

For each 4.5″ coaster I made, I used around 65 1cm (depending on where you get them, sometimes they’re marked as 10mm) balls. They do vary in size a bit — I noticed that a couple of colors were a little larger or smaller than others — so how many you use will depend on how big each ball is and how tightly you pack them in next to each other.

These coasters really could not be easier. I started with 4″ felt circles. I used my handy-dandy rotary circle cutter, but you could just trace a glass or other round container and cut them out. They don’t have to be perfect, because they’ll be covered up.

Fold your circle in half and then half again to find the middle, and use hot glue to glue down your first felt ball. Then, just start gluing the rest around the first one in a circle. Keep going until you have the entire circle covered up, and you have yourself a coaster!

I absolutely love how these felt ball coasters turned out. The colors are so bright and cheery and fun, and they make me happy when I use them. 

I am now slightly obsessed with the idea of making an entire rug out of these, but I feel like maybe I should work my way up to that and try for a trivet or maybe some placemats first.

What about you? Have you ever used felt balls for a project? What is your favorite thing to do with them?

 

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