needle felt fursuit heads!
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2026 10:51 pm
(not to be confused with using needle felting for markings or repair., that's an entirely different subject)
in 2025 i finished my needlefelt fursuit head and debut it at FCL.
from what i've seen i am one of the likely very small group of furries who has a fursuit head mostly consisting of needle felt. i occasionally look around the web for more examples and i've found only a small handful of other examples that have been completed.
photo by Keeb
it should be said that my needle felt head is not entirely needle felt, the neck is faux fur and the back of the head is faux fur and fleece.
i explain the reasoning behind this in my breakdown below but the short of it is that i simply found it solved some issues of making a felted head and also looked more aesthetically pleasing to mix materials.
since it's unlikely many people on here have completed or worn a project like this, i wanted to share some insight into what i feel are the pros/cons to making a fursuit head that mostly consists of needlefelt, in no particular order. i hope this'll provide some helpful insight to those curious or even considering a project of this nature in the future!
the following is entirely my opinion and likely doesn't align with the thoughts of everyone who has made one of these or perspectives from other fiber artists in general.
unique benefits with needle felt:
unique challenges with needle felt:
to wrap this up, i would also like to add a disclaimer that i don't recommend making a fursuit head out of needle felt! it certainly isn't for the faint of heart. my felted head is mostly retired from events as it is extremely delicate, hard to thoroughly clean, requires repair frequently (when i brought it to cons i quite literally had to repair it daily) and if you suffer from any sort of chronic pain in your arms like i do, completing a project like this will likely be a more painful process than a more "traditional" construction method. however, don't let this deter you if your heart is set- just make sure you're ready for the journey ahead!
additionally, while this is not intended to be a tutorial topic, i am more than happy to answer any questions about process, i also did a write-up after i completed the head last here which you can read here, best viewed on desktop, my blog tends to break on most mobile phones.
in 2025 i finished my needlefelt fursuit head and debut it at FCL.
from what i've seen i am one of the likely very small group of furries who has a fursuit head mostly consisting of needle felt. i occasionally look around the web for more examples and i've found only a small handful of other examples that have been completed.
photo by Keeb
it should be said that my needle felt head is not entirely needle felt, the neck is faux fur and the back of the head is faux fur and fleece.
i explain the reasoning behind this in my breakdown below but the short of it is that i simply found it solved some issues of making a felted head and also looked more aesthetically pleasing to mix materials.
since it's unlikely many people on here have completed or worn a project like this, i wanted to share some insight into what i feel are the pros/cons to making a fursuit head that mostly consists of needlefelt, in no particular order. i hope this'll provide some helpful insight to those curious or even considering a project of this nature in the future!
the following is entirely my opinion and likely doesn't align with the thoughts of everyone who has made one of these or perspectives from other fiber artists in general.
unique benefits with needle felt:
- one of a kind, your fursuit head will be unique with a delicate handcrafted look that stands out amongst faux fur and fleece heads, and anyone who recognizes the technique will likely be charmed by your work!
- flat seamless look and no shaving, felting creates a flat and smooth surface and it really pops in photographs (here's a good example of what i mean). you can't really "shave" felt more than trimming away lose or stray fibers manually. however, this can also be seen as a con as you cannot have fur lengths (at least without excessive repair being necessary, as unfelted fibers will fall out with aggravation) without introducing another material.
- dyeable, using natural fibers and knowledge of dye processes (different types of fiber available for felting can react differently to dye) you have a virtually infinite color palette if you're not satisfied by what is currently available.
- sculpting onto foam with core wool, using core wool (a cheaper less refined wool used for making the base you felt on top of with your intended wool) you can sculpt directly onto a foam base with ease! i used this to make sparkles' eyebrows have structure that the base otherwise didn't.
- material cost, needle felting supplies are comparatively affordable to faux fur. lots of felting supplies are produced domestically (e.g. wool!) which definitely helps keep costs manageable.
- felting is relatively easy to learn and get started with. for a more flat application, felting onto a fursuit face, learning the necessary technique is relatively easy and i was able to take on this project only having felted a handful of times before.
unique challenges with needle felt:
- time consuming, needle felting anything is a time consuming task. i would highly recommend against deadlines if you take a project like this on, as it will likely take much longer than what normally furring a base takes.
- matching colors with faux fur/other fabrics, i had to order a large handful of swatches just to match the "snow white" merino wool i used for sparkles' back of the head and neck, and it is still far from a perfect match in particularly bright/sunny lighting conditions. unless you dye your own materials it is unlikely you'll be able to find a perfect match and you'll have to compromise.
- symmetry, trouble with symmetry is not necessarily unique but any symmetry has to be done by eye because even with the use of stencils/patterns the felting process will compress materials like core wool and even foam the more you work with it. in particular, felting flat objects like sparkles' ears or cheeks took forever to get remotely similar looking as while the original foam carves were identical, felting them for hours warped them.
- you can only felt into soft materials, for this reason i used a nuke creations base for my head as it was foam cast. a foam cast base provides a lot of smooth foam uninterrupted by glue, making it ideal to be felted into. a traditionally hand carved fursuit head would be much more difficult as glue cannot be felted into. likewise, felting into a 3d print is not possible unless there is a material on top of the print that will be able to hold the fibers. this is why the back of sparkles' head is faux fur and fleece as due to how i constructed the back i couldn't felt into it without noticeable cracks from gluing the 1/2 bucket head together.
- construction, my process for sparkles was that i made individual parts (with the exception of the back of the head) and then glued them on once they were completed, which was rather stressful as any stray glue resulted in often another 30 minutes of felting added to the project. hiding the glue is also difficult.
- actually wearing them, i currently look at my needle felt head as more of an art piece than a completely wearable one. there is virtually no gain in ventilation (i've had people think that the head would be more breathable than normal, which i think would only be true if i removed the faux fur neck), a constant need for repairs as with touch and use fibers can become loose and need to be refelted and a general increase in difficulty for proper cleaning (a bissel green would likely require repairs after and water submersion with soap would lead to wet felting). furthermore, needle felt tends to easily pick up debris. i love the finished result i ended up with, but i'd be lying if i said it wasn't a hassle to maintain when worn!
to wrap this up, i would also like to add a disclaimer that i don't recommend making a fursuit head out of needle felt! it certainly isn't for the faint of heart. my felted head is mostly retired from events as it is extremely delicate, hard to thoroughly clean, requires repair frequently (when i brought it to cons i quite literally had to repair it daily) and if you suffer from any sort of chronic pain in your arms like i do, completing a project like this will likely be a more painful process than a more "traditional" construction method. however, don't let this deter you if your heart is set- just make sure you're ready for the journey ahead!
additionally, while this is not intended to be a tutorial topic, i am more than happy to answer any questions about process, i also did a write-up after i completed the head last here which you can read here, best viewed on desktop, my blog tends to break on most mobile phones.