A simple, elegant design that is nearly all made from one piece of wool. It’s an ideal project to exercise your sculpting skills.
50g grey merino roving
2 × size 40 triangular needles, for shaping
1 × size 42 triangular needle, for surface finishing
Grey embroidery floss
2 × 4mm black glass eyes or seed beads
Thick black cotton thread
Finished size: 8cm tall from chest to head, 11–12cm wide from chest to tail tip
1 Take a length of the grey roving measuring 30 × 4cm. Fold it in half and lay it on your felting mat, with the folded edge on the right. Pull a good amount of the wool away from the fold, leaving enough to shape the curved tail. Use two size 40 needles at this stage.
2 When the tail is roughly shaped, work on forming the body, pulling more wool towards the chest area. Take a shorter length of wool measuring 15 × 4cm, fluff it up and pop it into the chest area for extra plumpness. This will also give more weight so that your seal sits nicely.
3 Hold the body in a curve as you work and shape the head, which should point upwards. Ensure that the tail curves up slightly, too, to give the seal a sleek, sinuous body.
4 Make the flippers from two small lengths of wool measuring roughly 10 × 1cm. Shape each one into a loose teardrop shape on the mat before fixing them onto the body.
5 Join the flippers to the bottom of the chest so that the seal can rest on them. Use one needle to clearly define the edge of each flipper from the body.
6 Cover the seal with fine layers of wool, using one size 42 needle to get a finely finished surface. Where possible, make sure the covering fibres follow the same direction as the body fibres.
7 Using grey embroidery floss, stitch three chunky lines in the tail, then sew in the eyes using the sideways method. Stitch a nose and three tiny whiskers on either side of the nose using the thick black thread (see here).