How much wool do I need for needle felting? It’s a question I get asked often. Wool is typically sold by the ounce – and since I primarily use wool batting (rather than roving) I’ll talk about that.
An ounce of lofty wool batting will fill a 2 cup measuring container. Depending on how dense or firm you felt, this ounce of wool can stay nearly this size or can be felted down into the size of a walnut. (this kind of size reduction takes many hours, can cause needle breakage as well as hand fatigue as the felt gets really dense.)
Stuffed into a measuring cup – an ounce of Felt Alive Wool Batting looks about like this:
For my projects and my style of felting, a twelve inch doll typically weighs about 3-5 oz. Since my dolls are solid needle felted wool (no wire armatures or sewn fabric clothing) that’s how much wool it takes to make a doll. The bulk of my dolls are the core parts that I felt with my un-dyed core wool batting – I plan on using two ounces of core wool for each project and then another two ounces of a skin color. The remaining weight (if any) comes from the wool I use to needle felt the 
clothing to the doll and the wool I use for hair.For a 3 ” Pixie, it takes less than an ounce!
I hope this gives you some idea of where to start when asking yourself “how much wool do I need for needle felting?”
Thank you, that is a real help!