The New Felted Baby

I've labored so much this week on a project I almost feel like I've birthed a new baby.

Here's the scoop: Last year, I knit a large purse using my own pattern and then felted it. In case you don't know what felting is, I explain the whole process here. Basically, you apply heat and pressure to wool, the item shrinks up, becoming quite dense and strong.

But after all that work, I realized the bag needed to be lined because it was quite "hairy" on the inside due to all the novelty yarn. So the bag was put aside for quite sometime. But this week, I finally got to it.

First, I made a trip to the fabric store, where I found the COOLEST drapery fabric evah, and, it was ON THE CLEARANCE RACK!!! I like using thicker fabric for linings. Here it is:

I also love purses with lots of inside pockets. First order of business was to create a zipper pocket:

Then I made two side pockets, one for a cell phone:

Next, I wanted the bottom of the bag to be quite sturdy, so I bought some plastic gridding. The reason I used plastic is in case the bag ever gets wet, it will not mold. The next photo shows the bag turned inside out as I sewed the grid onto the bottom. You can see the "hair" I was referring to:


Then, the trouble began. You see, felted items often are not 100% even. They LOOK even, but one side might be a tad bigger than the other, which makes it extremely difficult to line. So I had to sew, re-sew, and sew again. Grrrrrr. This made me Very crabby.

But today, I finally got it done! Whew!