Falling leaves bag

June 6th, 2008 in gallery

HelenSewstylish, member

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This project was inspired from a basic free pattern I picked up instore. I'd just learned to crochet and wanted to make more granny squares for practice but which would have a purpose at the end of the day. The whole time I was crocheting, I kept thinking how much the colours reminded me of Autumn and the idea began to form in my mind to decorate the bag with some leaf motifs. After the granny squares had been finished, sewn together and felted, I knitted leaves and embroidered their veins with a sparkly DMC thread. A week after I completed it, I found the perfect leaf shape buttons to finish it off. And to think this started life as two big granny squares!

Pattern or design used: Patons Funky Felted Granny bag

posted in: gallery, yarn, handbag

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Comments (4)

HelenSewstylish writes: If you click through to the pattern, it gives brief instructions on how to felt in a washing machine. You really need a top-loading machine so you can open the lid and check on the progress. I don't have a top-loader.... but I did find an article online (www.knitty.com, Fall 2007 by Christine Olea. Article can be found here: http://www.knitty.com/issuefall07/FEATfeltingoldway.html) which describes how to felt by hand. All you really need is a bucket, a strainer, and a plunger. Basically, you fill the bucket with hot water, put your knitting/crochet in there too, and then use the plunger to agitate the fabric. Place the strainer over your plughole so that when you change the water the fibres don't clog your drains. It takes longer and is hard on the arm muscles but I found it to be a great stress reliever!! Just keep going until your fabric has shrunk to the desired size, then pin it out to dry. Posted: 5:17 pm on June 10th

crafty_gal writes: This bag is awesome! I just learned to knit this year and now I've got the crochet bug. Can you share how you "felted" the bag? Posted: 5:41 pm on June 9th

HelenSewstylish writes: The finished bag before felting is approx 14 inches, and shrinks to approx 12 inches square after felting. It would be easy to keep adding to the granny sqaure until it is the size you want. I used Patons Classic Merino Wool and had tons of yarn left over (almost half a ball in each colour). Posted: 5:25 am on June 7th

MichaelaMurphy writes: I'm inspired--I just learned to crochet too. I can't tell from the pic, is this bag big enough to use for a laptop? Posted: 12:21 am on June 7th

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