How to needle-felt mushrooms and pumpkins for autumn + Halloween

This is the time of year I usually post a Halloween DIY. Well, this time it's not very spooky (it could be if you want), but it's fun and cute! I saw mushroom decorations in a shop a while ago but never got around to making my own – until now! Join me for the fun in a few easy steps!

I rediscovered my needle felting supplies I had only tested out many years ago and found that it's the perfect material for this project. I'm sure you can find a needle felting basics video or tutorial – I actually didn't look at any and just started with what I knew from back then. Watch your fingers!

Needle-felted mushroom in brown, white and green on hand

Two cute needle-felted mushrooms on black table

Materials

Wool for felting (roving wool) in a few different colours
Felting needle
Foam block

You really don't need much to get started. Packs of wool come in a selection of colours (maybe even autumn-themed) and you can use a kitchen sponge as support to not damage your table. I did everything here with a single medium size needle.

Felted Mushrooms

Step 1 - Stem

Pull out a chunk of wool and fold it in half for the stem. Make sure to keep turning it while you poke to give it a round shape. The bottom end is usually a bit thicker, the top end is left for now to make the gills later.

White wool for mushroom stem and felting needle

Step 2 - Cap

The easiest version of the top part is a flat cap. Form the wool into a round shape and felt it until you have a halfway-dense disk of wool. If you want a dome-shaped cap, keep adding wool to the middle until you like it.

Brown wool on foam block, needle felted into round shape for mushroom cap, white stem in the background

Step 3 - Join

Use the loose bits of wool to attach the stem. Spread them out to match the bottom of the cap and poke around until it's fixed. To felt from the top, hold the mushroom against the block. I quite liked the while bits coming through.

Hand putting mushroom stem onto the cap, on foam block and felting needle in the foreground

Hand holding mushroom to the foam block and poking felting needle from the top

Step 4 - Details

To indicate some moss, I added a bit of green wool to the bottom of the stem. If you're going for the classic fly agaric (sorry no picture), add tiny white pieces to the red cap. I liked the loose and slightly messy look (not super densely felted) and just cut away single fibres with scissors.

Felted mushroom on foam block, showing bottom where green wool is added

Felted Pumpkins

I started this one with a yellow-orange-red ball that I already had in my felting box. The second one (not pictured) had a white base to save on the coloured wool. You can do that with all shapes that have a bit more volume.

Step 1 - Base

Ok, the first step is making a ball in the size you like. For me, this took a while because I only had a single needle. If you own one of those fancier multi-needle tools, this is the time to use it and you get a dense ball much quicker.

Hand holding yellow-orange ball of wool to felt a pumpkin, orange roving wool in the background

Step 2 - Shape

Then you need to cover the outside with the orange wool (or any other colour you want the pumpkin to be - green, black, purple?). To shape the ball into a pumpkin, I punched lines around, creating six sections.

Progress of needle felting a pumpkin shape on foam block, green wool in the background

Step 3 - Stem

The stem is made with a little bit of green wool rolled up. Just like with the mushroom stem, leave one end open. I split it into three sections, folded these in and stabbed them onto the pumpkin. If you like hanging decorations, add a thread to it.

Hand and felting needle attaching green stem to orange pumpkin on foam block

Each of these took me about 30 min. I already gave away a few, so I'll be making some more for my house. I also feel like making something more spooky – a felted ghost maybe? Or get some pipe cleaners and use them as legs for a spider? Do you have any ideas (or tips)?