Totoro Is Smiling To You!

This Totoro is more popular than any other buddy now. I posted it on my MakeWoolBuddies Facebook page three weeks ago and according to the crowdsourcing, this smiling Totoro was the big winner in the “beauty contest”. Haha, I'm so happy here, because I AM the maker of this perfect, vivid, fantastic, incredible Totoro ^0^!

So, if you want to learn the process of making a Totoro like this, you are on the right truck! Today, I'm going to write down the secrete process of making it. You can do it too as long as follow every step carefully! Ok, grasp some wool, a needle, let's do it!

1. Take a small handful of white wool, roll the wool tightly to make the base for the body shape. By compressing the wool together, the needle helps you speed up the felting process. Continue poking the wool until the shape is evenly round and like an egg.

2. Stretch a layer of gray wool to fully cover the body shape, then tighten it with felting needles.

3. Roll a small handful of white wool into an oval shape for the bust and tummy. Poke the white wool onto the front of the body, leaving half of the height for the head area.

4. Using small amount of gray wool, make one tail and two arms. You can just make three rounded balls. Poke the tail onto the lower back of the body, poke the arms on each side, and felt them together. 

5. Add more gray wool to help connect the edge of arms with the body, keep poking until they connected naturally. Now it's time to make its head part.

6. Stretch proper amount of while wool and poke it onto the face part, shape the teeth part by using your felting needle while poking. Likewise, poke two soybean-sized eye areas and black-soybean-sized nose area. Eye areas should be white and nose area should be gray. For Totoro's ears, make two black-soybean shapes and poke them on its head. 

7. Make some gray spots on the bust (like what I added in the picture above).

8. Eyes, nose and teeth. Roll two pinches of black wool and poke into the center of the two eye areas for pupils. Stretch a triangular nose on the nose area, make sure the base of the triangle up, then add two brown nares on it. The teeth part is the finishing point. For this part, remember the more you poke, the tighter the wool going to be? So my secret is using NO more wool but ONLY felting needles to poke them out! Be patient to poke hundred times for all the lines, lines must be absolutely straight since it affects the energetic smile directly! 

Wow! You just finish your own smiling Totoro! Congrats!