Are you tired of waiting for hours for your laundry to dry? Well, using wool dryer balls will not only speed up the drying process but it will also reduce your energy bill, remove pet hair, de-clump your laundry, reduce the chemicals in your laundry, and they are eco-friendly. So, why not take the opportunity to be creative and make your own?
If you’re looking for an easy felting idea, this quick craft project on ‘how to make wool dryer balls’ is not to be missed. It is beginner friendly, takes less than an hour to make, and makes a great homemade felted gift for all occasions.
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Instructional guide overview
- How to make felted wool dryer balls with wool roving, or from raw wool, or from yarn.
- For the felting techniques, I will cover how to wet felt dryer balls, how to make needle felted dryer balls, and how to felt them in your washer and dryer.
- I will also answer commonly asked questions about dryer balls such as how to use dryer balls, how many dryer balls to use per load, how to use dryer balls with essential oils, and how many times can you use dryer balls, among other questions.
Please note that needle felting is not kid-friendly, the needles are barbed and very sharp. If you would like to try this activity with kids, use the wet felting or machine felting process only.
Preparing the wool for felting
You can use wool yarn, roving, or raw wool to make dryer balls. All wool types work for wet felting and machine felting the dryer balls. If you want to needle felting your dryer balls, I recommend using roving or raw wool. If you use coloured wool make sure that the dye won’t stain your clothes once the dryer ball is damp. Wool that has been heat set is colourfast, hand dyed wool may not be. I recommend buying a professionally dyed wool to reduce the risk of dye staining your clothes. Alternatively, just make white dryer balls. If you would like to use yarn for your dryer balls, do not use acrylic yarn or superwash wool yarn (which has a plastic coating), as neither of those will felt.
Make a dyer ball using roving
Weigh out between 34 and 50 grams of merino felting wool. Break them into approximately 20 inch lengths by pulling (not cutting) them. Split your roving in half, up the middle. Do this twice so you have 4 lengths.
Make a dryer ball using raw wool
Make sure the raw wool you use is washed well, cleaned or debris and doesn’t smell, or it could make your clean laundry in need of another wash. Take 34 grams of wool and scrunch it into a ball, raw wool that hasn’t been carded is difficult to roll up so just do whatever works to make it into a ball.
you use is washed well, cleaned or debris and doesn’t smell, or it could make your clean laundry in need of another wash. Take 34 grams of wool and scrunch it into a ball, raw wool that hasn’t been carded is difficult to roll up so just do whatever works to make it into a ball.
Make a dryer ball using yarn
Your ball of needs to be 100% pure wool for it work properly. I used a 50 gram skein of yarn.
Another option is to use a combination of yarn and roving. You wind a ball of yarn and then ravel roving around it to finish it off. This has the pro of being easy like the yarn but has a nice smooth finish like the roving. However, like the yarn ball, it won’t last as long as pure roving or unprocessed wool.
Add needle felted decorations to your dryer balls
Most dryer balls are white but they don’t have to be. You can get really creative and make them different colours using coloured wool, or decorating your dryer balls after you have formed the wool ball. If you’re more into decorating dryer balls than making them, consider buying wool dryer balls and using these instructions .
and using these instructions .The best way to add decorations is by using a needle felting tool to felt on some fun coloured wool in any pattern or design you like.
You will need a felting tool and felting wool. I prefer to felt directly onto the dryer ball rather than felting the design on a foam needle felting and then felting it on the ball, however, the choice is yours.
Example 1. Needle felt a design
To make an owl face, take some grey wool and needle felt the whole ball except for a heart shaped patch, which will be the face. Take some yellow wool and felt a long pointy beak. Then take some brown and felt in the outline of the eyes. Fill the eyes in with dark brown or black and add white reflection spots.
For other patterns, it is useful to draw the design on the ball using chalk. The chalk will wash away easily afterwards.
Example 2. Needle felting a pre-felted wool design
If you would like the shapes you needle felt onto your dryer ball to have a marbled effect, you will need to prefelt wool and cut the prefelt into the shapes you want before needle felting them on. In this dryer ball I went with a single band around the middle and two circles at the top and bottom, but you can cut out any shape you like. You then place the shape on the dryer ball and needle felt it into the ball. To learn how to make prefelt, check out How to make prefelt, and to learn about how you can use prefelted wool in more advanced felting projects check out How to use prefelt.
The great thing about decorated wool dryer balls is that when they come to the end of their life as a dryer ball (and have shrunk considerably), you can string them up as felted wool Christmas tree ornaments!
Felting the wool
It doesn’t matter which type of wool you chose to use (yarn, roving, or raw wool), it can be felted by either wet felting it, needle felting it, or using your washer and dryer to do the work. The main thing is making sure the dyer balls are felted enough that there are no loose fibers that will come off the dryer balls and stick to your clothes during the drying cycle.
How to wet felt a roving dryer ball
- You will need some basic wet felting equipment for this: A bowl of water, liquid soap.
- Fill your bowl with hot water and add 3 table spoons of liquid soap (I like to use Murphy’s oil soap for wet felting but any soap will do).
- Take a 20 inch length of roving and split it lengthwise into 4 pieces. Each piece will be felted onto the ball of wool, one at a time to make it more manageable than doing it all at once.
- Take one piece and roll it tightly into a ball. Dunk the ball into the hot soapy water and squeeze the air out. Roll it gently between the palms of your hands. Rotate the ball as you roll to give it a spherical shape. Do this for 2 minutes until the ball is round and the fibers hold together by themselves.
- Repeat the process of wrapping a new layer of wool around the ball and wet felting it, until you have used up the four lengths of roving.
- Pull off another 20 inch length of roving and repeat the wrapping and felting process, four times with each length of wool. Then repeat it again with another 20 inches of wool, for a grand total of 60 inches of roving (this should be approximately 34 grams of wool).
Tips:
- Each time you add a new layer of wool, dunk it in the water and roll the ball between your palms.
- Tease the wool roving apart before rolling it up around the ball. This will ensure that the ball is covered evenly and that there are no seams from clumping the wool.
- When you have added all the wool (this should take about 30 minutes) felt it really well, for ten minutes or so. You don’t need to be gently, the more pressure the better.
- Roll it against bubble wrap for the best agitation and friction to speed up the felting.
How to needle felt a roving dryer ball
- You will need a needle felting tool and a foam needle felting mat or an old cushion you don’t mind getting fibers felted into.
- Make sure your needle felting tool has lots of needle or this will take hours to finish.
- Take a 20 inch length of roving and split it lengthwise into 4 pieces. Each piece will be felted onto the ball of wool, one at a time to make it more manageable than doing it all at once.
- Take one piece and roll it tightly into a ball. Spend 2 – 5 minutes needle felting it into a dense ball.
- Take the next piece of roving and wrap it around the ball you just made. Needle felt the fibers into the ball.
- Repeat this processing until all 4 lengths of the roving are felted into the ball.
- Pull off another 20 inch length of roving and repeat the splitting, wrapping and felting process, four times with each length of wool. Then repeat it again with another 20 inches of wool, for a grand total of 60 inches of roving (this should be approximately 34 grams of wool).
- Once you have added all the wool, make sure the shape is spherical and the ball is dense, and the fibers are well felted in. If not, spend a further 15 minutes or so felting it in.
- If your dryer ball is a bit fuzzy, don’t worry. You will need to run the dryer ball through a hot drying cycle once to smooth down the ‘fluffy’ fibers on the surface.
How to machine felt a wool dryer ball
Prepare the wool
- To prepare the roving, follow the needle felting instructions but skip the steps where you needle felt the wool. Once you have 34 grams of wool wound up in a ball, the ball is ready.
- To prepare the yarn, wind it up to form a ball, turning the ball as you go to keep it a perfect spherical shape. When you’ve finished your ball, poke the end of the yarn into the ball using a tooth pick or darning needle, so the end isn’t loose.
- To prepare the raw wool, do your best to roll it into a ball. Make sure you weigh the wool out first rather than going by size. The wool traps a lot of air, making it look much bigger than the end result. Going by wool weight, is a better way to judge the size of the felted dryer ball.
Secure the fibers with pantyhose
- Cut off one leg of the pantyhose and place the wool ball in the leg of pantyhose. Using some string, tie a knot at the end of the pantyhose so the ball can’t fall out.
- You can felt one or more balls at a time. If you decide to felt more than one, keep adding the balls to the leg of the pantyhose and tie some string in a bow between them until you have something that resembles a round string of sausages.
Felting in the washing machine
- Wash in your laundry machine on the hottest setting with a bit of laundry detergent. When it finishes the agitation cycle, before draining, you can restart the agitation cycle again to speed up the felting process. However, don’t worry if you miss it and it gets to the end of the washing cycle.
- Dry the balls in a dryer on the hottest setting.
- You will need to repeat this process 3 more times (3 washing cycles and 3 drying cycles), until the surface of the ball loses its ‘stringy’ look and becomes smooth.
Follow along on YouTube
If you would like to watch a quick video of how to machine felt a yarn dryer ball, check this video out.
Or if you prefer to use unspun wool?
Pros and Cons of each method
- Using yarn is the fastest method but it doesn’t look as professional as wet felting or needle felting the dryer ball. Yarn is also usually more expensive than roving.
- Needle felting the dryer ball takes the longest, but you can create excellent designs for your dryer ball using needle felting.
- Wet felting is the most fun and looks the best. It will shrink quite a bit more than the other two methods so make sure your ball is bigger than you think it needs to be (or go by the dry weight of wool). If you are looking for ideas for kids crafts to do at home, this method is highly recommended.
- The machine felting works wonderfully, is great if you don’t have much time and you want to make more than one dryer ball, however, it consumes a lot of energy and water and the process isn’t as fun.
FAQs about dryer balls
- When to use dryer balls?
- Use dryer balls any time you use your clothes dryer.
- If your laundry clumps together during the drying cycle, using dryer balls will prevent this.
- If you would like to reduce the amount of chemicals in your laundry use dryer balls instead of a dryer sheet or a tennis ball.
- If you are trying to be more eco-friendly, use dryer balls as they are re-usable and reduce your drying time by up to 25%
- If you would like softer laundry, dryer balls act as a natural fabric softener.
- If you own a pet and want to reduce pet hair on your clothes.
- You get lint build-up on your clothes.
- You can’t use dryer sheets because you have sensitive skin.
- How to use dryer balls?
- Using dryer balls is simple. You just pop them into the machine and let them work their magic. Adding dryer balls to your washing machine will effectively separate your laundry, which allows more heat in.
- How many dryer balls to use per load?
- For large loads, you should use six or more dryer balls in order to dry your laundry effectively and make sure to remove one article at a time once it is done so as not to lose them. For small loads, 3 or fewer dryer balls should suffice.
- How to use dryer balls with essential oils?
- Add a few drops of your favorite essential oil directly onto the dryer ball and let them soak in for 10 – 20 minutes, then put them in the dryer on fluff for 10 minutes. According to The Homemade Experiment use essential oil on your dryer balls during a non-heated tumble dry setting only. Heating essential oils to a high temperature in a clothes dryer can and has caused fires.
- How many times can you use dryer balls?
- Replace your wool dryer balls every 1,000 loads (or 2-3 years time) to keep them working and looking their best.
- How to make dryer balls less static?
- Reduce your normal drying time by 10 minutes to prevent static electricity build up. However, If you’ve already over-dried your load, dampening the wool dryer balls and running your dryer for a couple of minutes should reduce any residual static.
- Can you use dryer balls in the washing machine?
- No. Wool dryer balls are very different to laundry balls, and should not be used in the washing machine unless you are felting them. To find out more about what laundry balls are and how they work, check out Laundry balls: how I wash without detergent.
Not interested in how to make your own dryer balls?
If you would prefer to buy your dryers balls, Amazon and Etsy have a great range to choose from. According to ‘Reviewed ’, the best on the market are Budieggs Wool Dryer Balls. These dryer balls are their favorite for the durability and they are hypoallergenic, they are particularly kind to sensitive skin.
Other tutorials you might be interested in
Wet felting for beginners – your step by step guide to wool felting
Wet felting on a ball
Cobweb felting tutorial – learn how to felt a cobweb scarf
Felted Vessel Tutorial
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