Needle Felting Tips & TutorialsFeb 24, 2025

My Favorite Needle Felting Tool

For many years, I needle felted for hours at a time—often most of the day.

Because I usually work with a single felting needle, finding a comfortable way to hold it became pretty important.

When I first started, I simply held the bare needle between my fingers. That worked, but after hours of felting my fingers would ache.

So I experimented.

I tried dipping the end of the needle in Plasti Dip. It helped a little, but eventually the coating started falling apart.

My husband made several wooden handles for me, but no matter what size we tried, they always felt awkward in my hand.

I purchased other needle holders too, but I kept going back to the bare needle because I liked the control.

Then one day I realized something:

A pen is already designed to feel comfortable in your hand.

That gave me an idea.

Make a Felting Needle Holder From an Old Pen

This simple little tool became one of my favorite ways to hold a single felting needle.

You only need:

A pen that screws apart
A felting needle
A small amount of wool
A narrow blunt tool for packing the wool into the pen

Not every pen will work, so you may need to experiment with a few different styles.

Step 1: Find the Right Pen

Look for a pen that screws together rather than one that simply snaps apart.

The opening at the writing end also needs to be large enough for the felting needle to pass through while still keeping it positioned straight.

The pen shown here was one of my favorites.

Step 2: Take the Pen Apart

Unscrew the pen and remove the ink cartridge, spring, and any other pieces you no longer need.
You should be left with the outer pen body.

Step 3: Insert the Felting Needle

Slide the felting needle through the pen so that the working end extends through the opening where the pen tip used to be.
Look carefully at the needle from several angles.

It should come straight out of the pen.

If the opening pushes the needle to one side or causes it to sit at an angle, try another pen.

This is important because felting needles are brittle. Working with the needle at an angle can put unnecessary pressure on it and make it more likely to break.

Step 4: Pack Wool Around the Needle

Take a small amount of wool and pack it firmly into the pen body around the upper end of the felting needle.

The wool acts as padding and helps hold the needle securely in place.

Use a narrow blunt tool to push the wool down firmly. Avoid using anything that could damage the felting needle or force it sideways.

Continue adding and packing wool until the needle feels secure and does not wobble inside the pen.

Step 5: Put the Pen Back Together

Screw the pen back together.

Your homemade single-needle felting holder is finished.

Before you begin felting, make sure the needle is:

Straight
Secure
Extending far enough to work comfortably
Not wobbling inside the handle

Then give it a try.

Why I Like This Felting Needle Holder

For me, the biggest advantage is simply the way it feels in my hand.

Pens are designed to be held comfortably and precisely, and that shape works surprisingly well for needle felting too.

I still have the control of working with a single needle, but I don't have to grip that tiny metal end between my fingers for hours.

And the best part?

You may already have everything you need sitting in a junk drawer.

Sometimes the simplest felting tools are the ones that work the best.

What I Use Now

For years, this homemade pen holder was my favorite solution for working with a single felting needle. It was inexpensive, comfortable, and much easier on my fingers than holding a bare needle.

Eventually, one of my Bear Creek Needle Felting Academy members recommended a different style of needle holder and encouraged me to try it.

I had tried plenty of needle holders over the years and hadn’t liked most of them, so I wasn’t expecting much.

But I loved this one.

It was comfortable in my hand and still gave me the control I wanted from a single needle. The biggest advantage, though, was something I hadn’t really solved with my homemade pen holder:

It is so much easier to change the needle.

Because I felt for long periods of time, I replace my needles fairly often as they lose efficiency. With the pen holder, changing the needle meant opening it up, removing the packed wool, positioning a new needle, and packing everything back into place.

With the holder I use now, switching to a fresh needle is quick and simple.

That convenience ended up mattering a lot to me.

I liked the holder enough that I eventually started carrying it in the Bear Creek Felting shop.

So the pen holder is still a great DIY solution—especially if you want to make something with supplies you already have—but for everyday felting, I now prefer the ready-made holder because it combines the comfort I was looking for with much easier needle changes.

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