Project 10 Stage 4

Making my bag

After my practise run last week I'm ready to make my felt.  Originally I thought that I would make the the back and the flap (the green and pink) in one piece but in reality it would have made it too big for either my equipment or me to handle.  Instead I made three separate pieces.

After a bit of reading I anticipated that my work would shrink about one third and I worked on that assumption.

The back and the front were made in an identical way
This is stage one

Complete

I took a note of the measurements as I started the green so I could repeat the process as nearly as possible.

Fibres laid                    47cm x 35cm both pieces

After rolling                40cm x 32cm  first piece
                                    38cm x 30cm  second piece

At 2 minutes fulling   34cm x 29cm first piece
                                   34cm x 29cm second piece

At 4 minutes fulling   31cm x 27cm first piece
                                    30cm x 27cm second piece

After rinsing               30cm x 25cm both pieces

The measurement after rolling alarmed me and I took care to keep checking after that.  The two pieces are now very much the same size and just right for the i Pad.

Two almost identical pieces of felt with the i Pad

The flap was a lot trickier because I wanted it an irregular shape so I could attach the handle in such a way to make a closure.  I forgot to take photos until I was about halfway through the job.

Half way through felting the flap

I wanted it to be quite sturdy as it will take quite a lot of wear.  It ended up looking like this;

Not quite the irregular shape I'd hoped for

But with a bit of judicious cutting it' will be OK

I have one or two options.  I can make standard internal seams (but I think it will be too bulky),  leave the edges wavy as they are now (but that will create difficulties with the flap) or trim everything up and have external seams. No contest.

Felting is very physical and I'm tired.


Next day.
I have trimmed my felt and made the nerve racking cuts to the pink piece.

The front bag and the flap

This is where I'm going

I scanned the pinned up bag so that I can use the image for placing shapes before I finally commit to the design.




The pink you see here will be hidden behind embroidered purchased felt because it is lighter weight.  The inner flap will be embroidered as well as the front.

Some time later:
That was the theory.  I played with the purchased felt idea and it was far too fussy.  I decided to let the felt speak for itself.  As I'm often told "less is more".

I took long stitches midway through the felt and repeated the idea on the other side.

The back I decided to leave plain but I spent a long time working on the front.

Planning with paper

Velvet with the confetti applique

Mounted on lightweight fabric to get the light green I wanted

I stitched in silk

There was lots of work in this and while it was OK it didn't sing to me so I set about making more felt and began again.

This time it took off so well that I've no photos of it's construction.  Words will have to do.  I took the "arrow" design, left it whole and I filled in the spaces around the edge with angular pieces of fabric.  I accentuated the lines with machine stitching and sari silk and I scavenged some silk ribbon from my abandoned sample to make long stitches to join the top shapes.

The sari silk holds a small surprise.

Joining the pieces together was an exercise in logic which isn't my strong point.

I needed to:
stitch on the flap
attach the handle
sew up the bag seams

I drew a sketch that helped me to decide what to do first.  They aren't very clear but it gives an idea of my thinking.

Showing the way the handle fits onto the back

The handle forms the closure as well

First a word about the handle.  I had intended to use the wool rope I made earlier as a sample.  When I put this against the work it looked so wrong, colours, texture and shape seemed a real mismatch.  I looked at my felt offcuts and tried to make something of them but wasn't happy with that either. This was mainly because I had to reinforce it with lots of machine stitching and it looked bitty.

I ended up doing what I should have done in the first place which is custom making some flet for the handle.  I made it quite hefty and fulled it well so that it is strong enough without reinforcing.  I had to use two overlapping seams to get the length I needed.

I am much happier with this.

Back to construction matters.

I attached the flap to the back with straight machine stitching using an overlap seam.  I left 1cm at both edges so the bag seam didn't go over it.  I left the wavy edge because it mirrors that on the front of the bag.

Before I sewed the seams of the bag I put on the handle.  This felt really awkward but it would have been more awkward to attach the handle after the seams were sewn.

Next the bag seams.  My intention was to use the blanket stitch on my machine because it is neat, decorative and strong.  My machine wouldn't take the thickness of the felt for blanket stitch but it would sew straight so that's what I did.  Afterwards I did a decorative blanket stitch by hand.

The finished bag

It fits!