Crochet That Fits - Lining my felted Houndstooth-check purse

As I mentioned in my previous post, this is a fantastic book with extremely easy, classy items to crochet inside. There are hats, scarves, belts, dresses, skirts, tops and my favorite, handbags, inside. I have made two bags from this book and last night worked like a crazy woman to finish the first - The Houndstooth-check felted bag.

Lining a felted bag is a bit easier than lining a plain crocheted or knitted bag. Mainly because the non-felted bag still has a lot of stretch in it, so you have to be careful to ensure the lining is big enough. I normally cut my fabric way bigger than the actual bag as you can see in this photo. I then start sewing the side only until I am happy with the fit. Then I sew the bottom and make a flat botton last. I leave a long extra piece at the top, which I fold over (on the inside) and then sew to the bag. With felted bags, sewing with the machine works well, but with plain crocheted or knitted bags, I find that machine sewing stretches the bag out of proportion and takes the elasticity away, so I handsew. Not my favorite, but it looks better.

Now I have finished sewing the fabric lining, complete with 4 pockets that I require to keep my necessities neat and handy in my purse. You will see above that I have already folded the long top piece of fabric back, but have not sewn the lining on yet. If you are putting a magnetic snap in the lining, this is the time to do it.

This picture gives you a better view of the lovely look of this crochet pattern. It is the best, and easiest, houndstooth pattern I have ever seen. Next comes the handles and magnetic snap. As you know, I make my own leather handles and I found these dark grey handles in my stash, all made up already. I have opted to attach the handles to the lining instead of sewing it onto the outside of the bag as per the pattern.

The lining and handles are all nicely sewn in now. I decided to make a firm bottom for the bag and quickly cut a piece of my plastic I use for this. I sewed a fabric cover for it and inserted it lose in the bag. I decided to put the magnetic snap in the flap as the pattern did, but had to search for an extra piece of felted yarn I could handsew the snap to. This is just extra re-inforcement because the felted yarn will eventually get damaged with frequent use.

I will upload this project to Ravelry today as well and will list the yarn details there if you are interested.

All done! I am already using my bag today! Love, love, love it! Can you believe that I often, like today with a new bag, chose what I will wear that day according to the bag I want to use? Is that crazy? Maybe you girls won't think so, but my non-crafty friends think I am!

Tonight I hope to finish the lining of the black and orange crocheted bag I showed you recently as well as make the leather handles and lining for the other project I made from this book, the Sweater Bag. Have a great day!

Burda WOF - Charm tunic 113

I finally took some pics of the lovely jersey knit tops I made a few weeks ago. The pattern is called Charm Tunic # 113 in the June 2009 issue of Burda WOF magazine. I just love this magazine. It is such good value for money and I seldom find that there is nothing in the magazine I do not like. This specific issue has several lovely jersey top patterns in.

This is a pretty crappy pic of the Charm Tunic top I made. It was rather hot here in Joburg a few weeks ago, so I decided to make this top to keep cool. It is a strapless jersey tunic with a tight bust, front darts, covered with two wrap-over pieces of fabric in the front and one in the back and finished off with an elastic casing at the top.

I made three of these tops, each one different. You know me, I cannot stick to any pattern! This pink and black tunic is my favorite, and third attempt. I decided to leave the cross-over pieces out, added wide straps to hide the bra-strap, and added an extra piece of fabric to the neck edge for the elastic casing. I found the bust piece to be a little on the short side.

This was my second attempt at this pattern using some of my stunning silk knit fabric. With this top I just left the cross-over pieces out and also added the extra piece of fabric for the elastic casing. These tops are so easy to wear and cool!

This was my first attempt at this pattern. (Another crap pic. Sorry.) The top is actually made from a bright yellow jersey knit fabric and I stuck to the original pattern, with the cross-over pieces in. Not easy to see on the pic though. A really nice pattern and as always with Burda, the fit is perfect! My favorite patterns. I think I might make a few more of this one sometime. As you know, if I like a pattern, I make a few!

And as promised, here is a pic of the felted little green bag with the interesting handle. As you can see, the bag is very small and the beautiful big green beads did not survive the hot water in the washing machine. The small polka-dot beads are fine. Not sure why the difference, I am not a bead expert. Must be the painting method. I still need to put in a magnetic snap closure. I really like this bag, I'm just miffed because it shrunk so much!

Felted bags

A few weeks ago I made a few bags. This pattern caught my eye a while back but I was not keen to cut up any of my dresses to make it! This is the Sack Dress Sack. You can find the FREE crochet pattern over at CrochetMe at http://crochetme.com/sack-dress-sack. Very easy to make and quite cute. I used two skeins (two threads of yarn held together and worked at the same time) of Elle Gold yarn, a local yarn that is really lovely, in a bright peacock blue colour. I made the bag slightly bigger than the pattern calls for as I really hate small bags.

This is my first attempt from my new book "Knit-'n- Felt Bags". I really love this book! I did change the pattern a lot though. I felted the bag and now I wish I didn't. It did not come out as I hoped, but I can still use it.

This is the Gelato Bag to be found here in a kit form. http://www.fibertrends.com/product/56794/GB-K/_/Felt_Gelato_Bag_Kits_-_SPECIAL_PRICE. The bag is really small, so I made it a lot bigger. Also I did not have the 40cm (16") circular needles needed to start the bottom of the bag. A fruitless search locally for several weeks, made me order a full set of 40cm circular needles from a shop in the UK. Sadly, this parcel was posted several weeks BEFORE Christmas, and has STILL not arrived!

You use felting wool yarn held together with Mohair. This Mohair is really bad. Lovely but so bad. It fluffs and little pieces drift up your nose, in your mouth, all over. Then I am not even talking about what it does when felted in your washing machine! Fortunately I read up on this before I attempted felting it and decided to put the bag in a thicker pillowcase when felting it. The fluff that came from that bag was unbelievable! And it still got through the pillowcase onto the towel, jeans and other stuff I added to the wash. The pre-felted bag was HUGE.

I am quite pleased at the end result though. It shrunk less than the wool yarn normally does. All the yarn I used was local. The Mohair affects the felting process quite a lot. You can still see stitch definition, which I am not so fond of, but it's still nice. And fluffy. A lot of fluff! I still need to finish it off with a nice button and magnetic snap before I can use it. Not with a dark outfit though. I will be covered in fluff in no time.

For the life of me, I cannot remember now which pattern I used for this bag! I will have to look it up and post again on this one. I still need to take a picture of the finished version of this bag after felting, which sadly, did not go so well. Oh, it felted beautifully, but it shrunk plenty! The bag is so small now, my purse won't even fit! I do love the handle and bead effect that I made although the beads did not withstand the heat in the washing machine so well either.

I also made some lovely jersey knit tops recently that I still need to take pics of. I will post again next week and share some of these projects. And of course, I still want to make tops from my two new patterns I purchased recenlty from Sewingpatterns.com.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We do not celebrate Thanksgiving in South Africa, but Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends who do celebrate it! I think the closest we get to Thanksgiving is Family Day, the day after Xmas. Sadly, we normally are forced to spend time with family on that day as we are unable to move after over-eating on Xmas day!

I know I have not been blogging regularly lately, but things are rather crazy at work and I have been too tired to make anything the last two weeks. I tend to just lie around and read and rest on weekends. I hope that is over now as I have many projects waiting!

Like this dress I want to make. Not a great picture, but it is a plain, semi-fitted, jersey dress in a light grey. I have bought the jersey fabric, hunted down the perfect pattern, and now just have to DO it! I have fabulous grey shoes that will go perfectly with it. Then I need to make the perfect felted bag to match it.

There is a stunning light and dark grey felted bag pattern in this book that will go perfectly and I have all the yarn needed to make it. Of course, there are many other projects I am keen to do, such as more jersey tops, skirts, fabric bags and more felted bags. Let's hope my moyo remains around this weekend! Hope you all have a great weekend!

I'm back!

I cannot believe it has been a whole month since I blogged! Things have been really hectic at work and a trip to London also took up a lot of time. I am back and had a very productive crafty weekend with lots to share! First up, some lovely felted bags I have made. Introducing the Pinktulip Puff Purse, my very own design!

Just LOVE this purse! It is a super-easy, super-fast, crocheted and felted bag. I am still experimenting with it as i was not happy with the size of the opening at the top, but it is just gorgeous! I have drafted a free tutorial, which I will post on Ravelry sometime soon.

My second attempt following the Puff Purse pattern did not puff at all! I made the top opening far too big and no puff. I'll just have to try again. I do love this purse as well. I used a handle technique from a pattern I purchased on Ravelry and just love it. I still need to add a magnetic snap.

I also made this bag. There is a free pattern on Ravelry for this bag, I think it is called the Square bag, not sure. You are supposed to knit 22 squares, but my Italian yarn was too thick so I adapted it to another pattern called the Tapestry Crochet bag, It took two tries in the washing machine to felt it, and I am still not 100% happy. I will however use it as is now.

I will share more details on each bag on Ravelry if you are interested. I have lots more to share, but will save it for the next few blogs. I am happy to be back and will slowly do the rounds and visit all of you! Hope your week is great!

Felted: Crochet Bags

This was quite an exciting exercise as I was keen to see how this yarn would felt. I expected it to be different and was pleased with the result. This yarn is an Elle Aran Knit, a local yarn, that is 50% wool and 50% courtelle. I cannot find out what "courtelle" consists of, but it reacts better to felting than nylon or acrylic does. If you compare the above picture, taken after felting, with the picture in the previous post, before felting, you will see that all it did was become "fuzzy". The bag did not shrink at all. It feels marvelous though!

I tried to get a close-up to show the "fuzziness" better. Not a great picture, but you can still see it. The stitches still show, but the fuzziness looks great!

Here is a picture of my drawstring bag. Same result, lovely fuzziness. What did surprize me was how great the smaller pieces felted! The plaited handle and drawstring came out lovely. I still need to sew on the handle and I'm thinking of adding a flower.

Talking of crochet, I am so excited about Linda Permann's new book, Crochet Adorned! This book has stunning ideas on how to mix crochet with fabric, which has been on my mind quite a bit lately. Some of my favorite projects in the book are a fabric bag with crochet embellishments, and various items of clothing with crochet detail. Have a look at the fabulous apron with crochet trim! Head on over to http://www.lindamade.com/wordpress to see it. It is the next book I am buying! Hope you all have a great, crafty weekend!

Completed felted bags

Finally! I have finished the two felted bags. This is my little basket bag from a pattern in Crocheted Pursenalities, although I did omit the basket "weave" effect. Really love how the handles came out with the plastic tubing inside. I added a magnetic snap under the flower on the flap. It is a small bag, but can still hold quite a bit.

I am proud to announce that I attempted the circular needles (torture sticks) again and this time - success! What a pleasure they are to use. I found a shorter pair (60cm long) and it worked much better. And just look at this felted bag - no seams to sew! This is a variegated wool from Elle and felts like a dream. I finished knitting the entire bag in two evenings, threw it in the washing machine two nights ago, and tonight it was dry. A very simple bag. All I did was to sew a button on the flap.

Now I am just waiting for my brown wool to arrive from Thimbles Quilt & Knit in Cape Town and i can finish the striped bag I am busy with. I used dark brown, green and yellow in a random pattern. Love the effect.

Oh, and I spent this evening trying to crochet a coin purse to fit into a small metal frame. Not as easy as it looks! I am battling to find some simple patterns on the internet. More on that soon.

I cannot wait to start on Kate's challenge tomorrow night! Nothing like sewing a new bag.

Felted Bag & Weekend projects

Despite many other things I had to do and being out the house quite a bit this past weekend, I managed to finish a lot of projects. My kind of crafty weekend! First up, my second successful felted bag!This is close up view of the bag body and the flower I also crochet and felted. I am so pleased with how the flower came out! There is still some stitch definition on the bag but not much. I used the pretty little basket pattern in my new book Crocheted Pursenalities. I wanted to do a test run of this pattern before I use my horrendously expensive wool to make a grey and pink basket bag as is displayed in the book.

I was concerned that the pattern might be too advanced for my skills, but I am pleased that I could follow it without any help! I went to the hardware store on Sunday morning to get plastic tubing for the handles and I am tickled pink because it came out stunning!

The handles show an almost weave-like pattern once felted. I assume it is because you felt it with the plastic tubing inside.

I also felted samples of some of my new wool. I am a bit disappointed with some of the samples, like the dark grey, top right. I had high hopes for this wool but it did not felt at all. The cheap dark green wool, bottom right, did felt. The light grey, middle right, is the horrendously expensive wool for my next basket bag. It did not felt too great, but I think I can improve on it. The bright green, top left, is local handspun and dyed angora wool. It felted great but shrunk almost 50%! It is also extremely difficult to crochet with all the fluff. I think I will have to knit with this wool as it will be easier to see the stitches.

I also made a few fleece blankets yesterday. I love making these! These are all gifts for some friends and colleagues. The stitching is quick but cutting and pinning takes forever!

Apart from this I have three bags in the making - one knitted and two crocheted. I hope to finish them by this coming weekend so I can felt them. I hope you also had a great crafting weekend!

Torture sticks!

Have you seen these things before? They are called circular knitting needles but I am convinced they are torture sticks! I thought it was the coolest thing to use to knit a bag and most of the patterns I downloaded calls for it. It is not.

Every pattern mentions "be careful so the stitches don't twist...". How on earth can you see if the stitches are twisted if the thing won't stop twisting?! I had knitted for about an hour when I decided to check if the stitches are OK, and guess what? The stitches were twisted! This is after an hour of wrestling with these needles, stretching the knitting and lots of swearing. A whole 10 rows knitted. So, I am back to conventional knitting needles. So what if the bag has a few seams?

I prefer crochet anyway. It is so much quicker and easier. Yesterday was Youth Day in South Africa and I went shopping for books. Again. This is what I found.

This book has 20 fabulous crocheted, felted bag patterns inside! I will post some pics of some of my favorites as soon as I have taken them. I am already busy making one as you can see in the picture in a lovely mustard yellow and rusty brown colour. This is local felting wool from Elle that I found on sale at my local Bernina store on Monday.

Lots of sewing on my to-do list as well, but sewing is mostly restricted to weekends nowadays. Knitting and crochet is quicker and easier to do on weeknights, so I hope to have my two bags finished in time to felt them on the weekend.

Felting success - sort of...

Well, I went to the washing machine with mixed feelings last night when the cycle ended. My first attempt at felting bags was in there....

Success! The Sublime Angora Merino wool felted beautifully! Sadly, the bag is a long sausage shape and the top opening is rather small, but I am still so pleased that it worked! Here is a close up of the felted bag...

Love it! The little bow I knitted also felted beautifully, although a little uneven.

As for the black and orange round bag, not so good...

And this wool yarn is supposedly specifically for felting. Umph! I am also a bit miffed because I only read on a blog today that you must stitch the opening of the bag closed to avoid this gaping. Overall not too bad, but not as good as the first bag.

As for my samples, mixed feelings. The pink is a sample of the 100% wool yarn from Portugal which I had high hopes for, but it did not felt so well. The purple is the same Portuguese wool. It took me several days to knit this piece! The wool is very thick. Felted OK.

These babies are busy drying at the moment and I am planning the next felted bag projects! Hope you have a good week!