[Nfb-krafters-korner] felting

Fri Nov 4 21:53:45 UTC 2011

Denise 

I am a bit confused as you asked about purse making and felting.  That  is 
why I explained how and what you do to felt things.

Now here is the easiest way to make a felted bag...

Go to the second hand type stores or tag sales, whatever.  purchase  
yourself a 100% wool sweater[guy's sweaters are great for this][dark colors] and  
toss it in your washing machine with jeans and then in the dryer.  Sweaters  
that have cables or patterns of stitches or colors work great.  Now you  
have a shrunk up sweater that is felted.  This is where you use your  
creativity.  You want to cut this across the chest under the arm  pit..  Now you 
have a tube shape.  I am giving you directions to make  a type of tote bag.   
You want to sew right sides together that tube  from side seam to side 
seam.[that is of course if the sweater had side seams  from waist band to arm pit. 
 Once you get that seamed that is now the  bottom of your bag.  You can sew 
it straight across or put corners to make  the bottom rectangle or whatever 
you want.  The ribbed band becomes the top  of the bag.  It is a finished 
edge so you can use a sleeve to make a handle  or shoulder handle.  You can 
purchase leather type handles in Joann's or  purchase by the yard finished 
usually 1 inch wide or a little wider what they  use for handles and it comes 
in colors.  You can get nice large button and  cord to close up this bag or 
use some felted fabric from a sleeve and just baste  a piece thru the top 
area and use it as a draw string.  

So there you go.  You don't have to spend hours knitting and then  felting. 
 You might even find one of those old sweaters in the house  hopefully if 
it doesn't have too many moth holes in it.

You can cut it up and make lots of sell phone bags.  You can sew this  by 
machine, by hand with thread or yarn.  

Ok there is a project for you.

Let me know what you did with this information.

Terry K. I hope you don't throw it on the fire to go up in smoke.

Joyce  Kane
_www.KraftersKorner.org_ (http://www.krafterskorner.org/) 
Blindhands at AOL.com   

In a message dated 11/4/2011 4:06:13 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
denise.shaible at att.net writes:

Thanks  for the information.  I was hoping I wouldn't have to use 100% 
wool.  
Is there a wool blend that would work?  Would using smaller needles  create 
the felting effect so that I don't have to use wool?  Just  wondering. 
Thanks  again.

Regards,

Denise

-----Original Message-----  
From: Ohio Gardener
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2011 6:47 PM
To:  'List for blind crafters and artists'
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner]  felting

Joyce,

I'd join the class if it was knitted on the KK,  but I'm not ready to try
knitting needles again  yet.

Ohio

-----Original Message-----
From:  nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org]  On Behalf Of
Blindhands at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2011 5:18  PM
To: nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner]  felting

For felting you begin with a yarn that is 100% wool that gives  you basic
washing instructions  that say wash by hand in cold water  and lie flat to
dry.  Then you can hold other types of yarn along with  this when you knit
or
crochet.  You will actually create your  project larger then needed as it
will shrink in size when you felt  it.  Don't worry about using fiber along
with the wool that will not  felt.  As Linda said it creates interesting
feeling fibers.  As  far as bags or purses or cell phone pouches they use
felting
a lot for  these projects as the wool yarn does become a tighter weave  due
to  the felting.  Think of a wool winter coat.  The wool fiber is   woven
tightly together to keep you warm and so the wind does not blow  thru  it.
Well
likewise when you felt a purse it tightens up the  weave, it  causes the
fiber to feel thicker so for a purse it makes it  stronger and small  
objects

will not work their way thru the  weave.

I had taken a class a few years back and did a felted bag at a  yarn shop in
town.  We did use different types of yarn to be knitted  along with our
100%  wool.  I used some fuzzy stuff, some other  100% wool dyed yarns and
some
lacey type of yarn.  After I felted  it it was such a unique tactle feeling
bag.

I have said maybe I  would teach a felting class, but I have not done that
yet.  So maybe  if folks are interested I will do a class the beginning of
the  year.

Let me know who might like to do it.  The tough part is I  don't have a
yarn shop in town any more so I don't know exact names of  yarns to refer 
you
to
trying out.  I am sure we could find  something up at Web's that we could
order if you can't find anything  locally.

Joyce  Kane
_www.KraftersKorner.org_  (http://www.krafterskorner.org/)
Blindhands at AOL.com
_______________________________________________
Nfb-krafters-korner  mailing  list
Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
To  unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info  for
Nfb-krafters-korner:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/flowersandh
erbs%40gmail.com

_______________________________________________
Nfb-krafters-korner  mailing  list
Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
To  unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for  
Nfb-krafters-korner:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/denise.shai
ble%40att.net  

_______________________________________________
Nfb-krafters-korner  mailing  list
Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
To  unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for  
Nfb-krafters-korner:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/blindhands%
40aol.com