Needle Felted Bags
Making little felt bags is a quick and easy craft. You can make bags out of old felted jumpers or coats or you can purchase some acrylic or wool felt and make your bag from that. Whichever kind of felt you decide to use, you can make your bag more exciting by adding some needle felting to it.
My favourite way to decorate felt is to use some knitting wool and create patterns which are then needle felted into the pieces for the bag.
What is needle felting and how to you do it?
For my type of needle felting you will need a felting needle or felting tool. A felting tool is a very useful investment as it is a lot quicker to use than an individual felting needle. Felting needles are barbed and when you push a piece of wool into your felt with the needle, the barbed needle hooks the piece you wish to apply into your felt. You need to jab the wool quite a few times to make it secure. A felting tool has five needles in it so for each jab you do, you push five needles into your felt - much quicker than jabbing just one needle.
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| Pushing a felting tool into a piece of felt placed on a felting brush. |
As well as a felting tool or needle, you will need a large felting brush. In the picture above you can see some wool being needle felted into a piece of felt which has been placed on a felting brush. Felting tools and brushes are available at Spotlight and there are two different brands. You can get them in various sizes, you will need a large one for most needle felting applications so I would start with that size.
Now to make a bag
My little bag pattern is very easy and quick to make. I like my needle felting to look a little wild and rustic, so you don't even have to be very neat!
Cut out a strip of paper 34 cm long and 8 cm wide and round off one end. This end will be the flap of your bag. You can really make it any shape you like but rounding off is easy to start with. You will also need two gusset pieces 12cm long and 3cm wide. Round off one edge of each gusset piece. (Make sure they are the same.) You can vary the size to suit what you wish to use the bag for, but don't make these bags too big or they will be floppy.
Pin your pattern pieces to the felt and cut them out. You don't need to worry about the fabric grain with felt.
Now take a piece of felt and put it on your felting brush. Take some interesting 100 percent wool and swirl it in an interesting pattern onto your felt. Do a small swirl at first and needle felt this into the felt by jabbing with your tool as in the picture above. Once this is secured in the felt, keep making your swirls or patterns and needle felt them in.
Keep going until all of your felt is covered in wool and is felted in. Needle felt all of your pieces until you are happy with how they look. Make sure that you lift your piece off the brush and do the other side a little too, don't leave it on the brush without turning it occasionally or it will stick into the brush.
Once all your pieces are decorated with wool, you can sew them together to make your bag.
You can also use wool roving, or a mixture of the two.
How to sew your bag together
Lay out your pattern pieces as shown in the pictures below.
The gusset piece is yellow. Have a look at the picture of the finished bag to see how the gusset fits in.
The pink piece is the main body of the bag and the gold piece is the gusset. Blanket stitch or oversew the gusset piece to the main body. Sew along the side of the gold piece. When you get to the curve in the gusset, bend the main piece around the curve and sew the edges. Repeat this with the other gusset piece. You can now sew around the flap if you wish.
Believe it or not, your bag is pretty much finished apart from adding a strap and a closure.
Let's make a strap.
An easy way to make a strap is to plait some wool together. Measure your wool about twice as long as you want the strap to be. Take at least 9 lengths, hold them together by the end and tie a knot about ten centimetres down from the end. Plait your wool until you are about 12 cm from the end and tie a knot. Sew the strap onto your bag, leaving the ends hanging below the bag like a tassel. If your wool is really thick, you can get away with just using three pieces of wool as in the bag below.
Another way to make a strap is to cut a strip of felt the length you wish your strap to be and then needle felt this. Needle felt a tassel onto each end and sew your strap onto your bag leaving the tassels to hang as in the picture below.
Now, wasn't that easy! All you have to do now is add some type of closure. You could put in a magnetic clasp, a button, a press stud or even sew on some velcro dots. A button hole is very easy to make in felt, you simply make a cut wide enough for your button in the flap and blanket stitch around it. You then sew your button onto the main part of your bag. You are done! Yay!
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| This bag has a press stud closure. |
Method Two
If you prefer a plain bag, but you want a little bit of interest, you can cut two bags out of felt, each one a different colour. Place the main body of one colour on top of the main body of the other colour, and then place both onto your needle felting brush. Repeatedly jab your felting tool all over the main piece, making sure you turn your piece regularly or it will get stuck into your brush. Keep needle felting until both pieces are joined securely together. Some of each colour will come through to the other side so make sure that you choose colours that will blend well together. If you choose blue and yellow, your bag will look green, the colours will mingle. Repeat this procedure with both gussets and sew up your bag.
This bag was made by needle felting a gold piece of felt to a magenta piece of felt. The two colours are mingled to make an interesting colour.
Making a bag from an old jumper.
Use the same pattern and cut your pieces out of the jumper. Your jumper should be pure wool and to felt it, you should have washed it a few times in very hot, then very cold water. You can then throw it in the dryer to dry until it has shrunk a little and felted itself. Sew up your bag just like the ones above. You can make your bag any size you like, but if your felt is a bit soft, don't make your bag to big or it will be floppy and lose its shape.
The small green bag on the left has been decorated with two felt circles, one smaller than the other. The two circles were decorated with blanket stitching. The bag has a press stud closure. The Grey bag on the right was sewn up with different coloured tapestry wool for decoration. One bag is used for earphones and the other one is used to hold tissues so they don't have a strap. Felt used from old jumpers is fairly stretchy so it doesn't work as well as needle felted felt with a strap - though of course you can needle felt onto it too.
Making an envelope bag with acrylic felt.
You can make a bag with acrylic felt, but it will not be very sturdy. Of course it depends what you wish to put into your bag. You can decorate your bag by sewing on felt shapes if you wish. The bag below is just very plain. I have made it with no gussets as it tends to flop a bit with gussets. I have just folded up the main piece to as large as I needed and then sewn all around it. You can make the bag any size you like, but keep them fairly small.
Now What?
Now you can experiment and come up with some cute little bags of your own. They make great presents and are really useful for things like mobile phones, tissues, small cameras... all the types of things that you like to put into your handbag. Happy felting!
Rowie
