Felt Bags

Recently I've done a couple of felt bags. I really love to work with fleece and see the result of water, heat and agitation. It's amazing to see what happens.
The first one I did was the "Chicken Skin" bag, as my daughter refers to it. She thinks it looks like a dead chicken. The Feltmakers Ireland Guild was gifted 50 kilos of fibre from a sock knitting company in Dingle. We were all given the opportunity to dig in and use as much as we wanted. Fibre varied from 100% wool (super wash) to wool/synthetic blends. It all needed an under layer of merino to adhere the sock fibre to it. I used a resist on the inside and garbage bin bag for the resist in the handle. It has a cream coloured flap and some leather trim which came from elbow batches. I couldn't find any source for leather pieces in Dublin, so you have to be resourceful. It's a good size and I like the roughness of it.

The second was a brown base with some contrasting red and beige. I did some pre-felt (under cooked felt) pieces and applied them before finishing the felting process. The handles and button clasp was applied at the pre-felt stage too. After the piece was felted, I stitched it randomly with metallic thread and made a button. Sewing the sides and button on, completed the bag. I was really pleased. I'd like to make a large bag with the red and brown combo. I found some beautiful ribbon that has red poppies and a brown background.