I'd just been on my first needle-felting course, and had got terribly excited about the potential for stole making. With beginner's zeal, I needle-felted the whole background cloth from a big carded bat, as well as then adding the design, which took AGES! I suspect I might be inclined to wet-felt - or use bought in felt as a backing - next time.
The design itself was loosely copied from a variety of images that I found online, and was done freehand. I initially didn't trust myself to do the dove straight onto the stole, so I made one separately intending to add it. However, I had miscalculated the width (or rather, the narrowness) of the stole, so it was far too big!
What I particularly loved about doing the dove was the slight three-dimensionality that you can achieve with needle felting. The wings go over one another, and the body and head are a little rounded. There is also (though you can't really see it in these photos) a slight colour variation, as I added very pale pink and grey wool to the cream in different places, to highlight subtly the different parts of the dove.
I have found, though, that the stole doesn't tend to hang very straight - it is not really heavy enough. So before next year, I need to work out how to add some interlining to give it a bit more body. Any ideas or tips from anyone who has done this before would be very gratefully received!
