Make an Easy No-Knit Felted Purse

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Tina Hilton, contributor

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This sweet little purse could be used as an evening bag or as a cool makeup kit.

Tina Hilton

This is what wool roving looks like. It comes in a wide range of colors and can usually be found in any craft-supply store or yarn shop.

Tina Hilton

Be sure to always use your handy little needle-felting tool in a straight up and down motion: using it at an angle can cause the needle to break.

Tina Hilton

This sweet little purse could be used as an evening bag or as a cool makeup kit.

Photo: Tina Hilton

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There are a few ways to create a trendy felted purse. First, you could take the time to knit a very large, purse-like shape from 100-percent wool yarn and repeatedly shrink felt it in a hot agitating bath in your washing machine until you achieve the size you were aiming for. Second, you could repurpose a commercially knitted 100-percent wool sweater, felt it by washing in hot water and hot dryer, cut it to the desired shape and sew it into a purse. Finally you could try the quickest and most fun method I have found so far. Using wool roving as your medium, fashion a spectacular purse with a dry needle-felt method, shaping it onto a craft-foam rectangle. You complete the felting process with a sprayer full of water, a short ride in the dryer, and a boiling-hot rinse—voilá!—a custom designed purse worthy of a night on the town!

What you’ll need:
Craft-foam block (for the purse form)
Plastic wrap  (the old school smooth Saran Wrap not the sticky Glad Press 'n' Seal—this will stick to your roving)
Water-soluble embroidery stabilizer  (available at most sewing machine and craft stores)
Straight pins with a prominent head (ball head or T-pins)
Wool roving
Needle-felting tools (Clover Needle Felting Tool with heavy-gauge needles worked well on the flat areas. I recommend an individual medium-size felting needle for the edges and curves. You could use an individual needle for the entire process, but it may take slightly longer to complete)
Hand towel
Spray bottle full of water
A leg from a pair of pantyhose

This is what wool roving looks like. It comes in a wide range of colors and can usually be found in any crafting supply store or yarn shop.

Be sure to always use your handy little needle-felting tool in a straight up and down motion: Using it at an angle can cause the needle to break.

To Make:

Step 1: Wrap a craft-foam block with plastic wrap.

Wrap the craft-foam block completely vertically and then horizontally with plastic wrap so there is no exposed foam at all. This will ensure that the wool roving will not stick to the raw foam.

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Felted Alpaca...
MrsG2003

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Comments (2)

MrsG2003 writes: This is a great way to make a felted purse!! I have been trying different methods over the last 6 months and this technique gave me the best results.

So far I have made three purses using this method. You can see my work on flikr.com - under appalpacaas

Louise
Posted: 10:31 pm on November 17th

JCockrum writes: Tina,
This is great thanks for the step-by-step. I'm going to try this this winter.

Have you ever knit an item then attached the roving to a finished piece (before felting the entire bag? I'm trying to come up with an item (bag) that I knit then attach a variety of colors maybe wrapped around one side and around the back ... just to kick my work up a notch.

Judy (check out my felted items.)
www.3knittingsisters.com
Posted: 1:41 pm on September 30th

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