Guest Post: How to make a Felt Purse

December 18, 2009 by Brenda
Filed under Family, Gifts, Guest Posts, Top Picks

How to make a felt purse

Last Christmas I made a felted shoulder bag for my daughter and this year she thought it would be a good idea if I made something similar for her friends and we agreed upon purses.

If you can knit simple stocking stitch, you can make felt as the hard work is done by the washing machine – it can be made from fleece, pounded into a fabric, but I feel knitting first is the easier way. Pure wool labelled as “handwash only” will generally shrink when machine washed at high temperatures and most knitters will probably have an old garment that has shrunk no matter how much care they have taken over the washing – that’s the sort of yarn necessary for felting.

For this project I’ve used some old lightweight double knit wool from Rowan. I knitted it with 2 threads together on 6mm needles – mainly so that the knitting didn’t take too long – 50 stitches wide, 38 rows,in stocking stitch, to give a rectangle 13 inches by 8. I also crocheted “flowers” for decorations. All these were put in an old pillowcase (to make sure they didn’t get “lost”) and washed in the machine at 50 degrees on a synthetic cycle. This is, of course, much hotter than wool would normally be washed. They came out having shrunk to 11 by 5 – the photograph shows their appearance before and after washing. It may be necessary to re-shape the felted fabric to an even rectangle but while still damp it can be pulled about quite a lot.

The bags were made by turning up the bottom third of the rectangle and sewing in place while the top third makes the closing flap. Sew on the fastening next, before lining, as it’s easier to do at this point – I’ve used large press studs which aren’t visible on the outside but you could use a button and loop instead. The lining was a rectangle cut from matching cotton fabric, machine seamed to make a bag and sewn by hand into the felted bag. The purses were finished with the shrunken crocheted flowers.