Making Some More Little Bags

I haven’t had much time to felt and today I finally got some time to start some new little bags.
The last time I made little bags I forgot to add the spikes that end up as the closures so I made a bunch of spikes to be ready this time. Now to remember to make the rings for the bottom.

I make these bas self lining by putting fabric next to the resist. This creates a nuno felt lining and I don’t have to do it later. I licked this silk scarf a friend gave me for it’s nice bright colours and interesting dye pattern.

The other thing adding the nuno lining does is add strength allowing me to make a thinner, less bulky bag. I set up 4 resists because if you are going to rub and roll some felt you might as well do make it worth while.

Here are the 4 bags ready to be put together. I try not to match the linings to the bag colour to much so it doesn’t disappear when I am done. I may have to switch the 2 middle ones.

At this point I had to stop and switch the laundry and got distracted with other things so I haven’t made it past this point today. You will notice that I have forgotten the rings at this point but I have a chance to fix this when I get back to them. It is not to late …..yet. Next time I will hopefully have some progress to show you.
Ann

A Couple of Small Felt Pouches

This week I decided to make a new pouch for my business cards. The one I am using now is getting  a little ratty looking from being in my purse for several years.

I didn’t take any in progress photos. I wasn’t really thinking about it, just enjoying the process of making something.

This is the first one, front and back and closed. It turned out well but I tiny bit smaller than I wanted.  Not bad considering I didn’t do any measuring I just cut out a resist and started.

Here it is on the resist so you can see the shrinkage

And a pictures of the nuno felt designs.

I made the second pouch bigger. I wanted some ruffles along the sides so added extra fiber there sticking out from the side. I didn’t make the extra wide enough and it almost disappeared. It is a tiny bit ruffled but not great.

and on the resist.

And a close up of the silk roses, I think I will shave them, they are a bit fuzzy.

Finally both of them with a ruler to give you an idea of size. one is about 6 and the other about 8 inches

I have a thought of making them to sell. I thought maybe I would put a grommet in the back with a carabineer clip in it. I am just not sure they will sell at a decent price. Do you like the idea? What do you think people would pay for them?

Felting weekend with friends: small bags

 

Last week end a friend Dianne Lemire and I went down to our friends Maureen Harding’s place for a felters weekend. Another friend Susan came on Friday to felt with us. It is so much fun to spend a week end with other people that love to felt.

I wanted to make a new little purse to use at shows. First I did a black one with a nice blue silk inside and a pocket. For the design on the flap I balled up some peices of orange silk and wound them up with thread to keep them in a ball.

silk balls on bag

I used a piece of black prefelt to cover them.  Then some silk roving to make them look more like a swirl. I used a scrap of commercial prefelt but you could make a piece of your own. Once it was dry I cut the tops off the raised  peices to reveal the bright colour underneath.

black bag finnished

This is the inside with the pocket and you can see I added an orange nuno swirl that is hidden by the front flap.

black bag finnished inside

Black is great but I decided I needed something brighter as well so I went with a multi coloured roving in orange.

orange bag layout

I added a pocket to this one too. Here you can see I forgot to add soap to the water and  it sits on the wool in beads. I think its a cool picture.

water on bag pocket

I used the flat glass “marbles” that they sell for decorating instead of silk balls this time. You can really see the out line of the marbles on the inside of the flap

orange bag inside orange bag finished uncut

I made a long snake to use as a strap. It is long enough to wrap around my waist or use as a shoulder bad depending on what I am wearing. I will put some grommets in the ends and 2 on the back to thread the rope through.

orange bag with snake  The holes I cut to reveal the marbles are not very big. I think I will probably enlarge them.  I will post a picture when the grommets are in and the holes are bigger.

I will show you more form our felting weekend in my next post.

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