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Autumn Leaves Seamless Felted Bag

Ah the Russian Vine is colouring up on our fence now. Every year, just as it reaches the peak of colour intensity in the leaves, we get a week of high winds and rain which just rips them all off. So this year I'm going to capture their glory in felt and silk.

Firstly I made some pre-felt for the leaves just very lightly binding red, green, maroon and a few other colours together into a sheet then cutting out leaf shapes of varying sizes.

I also dyed some silk with those fabulous dyes that can be done in the microwave. (I get mine from Rainbow Silks )  I am a big fan of all things non-complicated and quick and easy and the colours are truly luscious!

I decided that an autumn sky of pale blue would show off the rich colours of the leaves to best effect. However, being a bit ambitious with this project, I decided to also add a pocket inside the bag, and some silk around the rim on the inside. This made for lots of complications later when it came time to cut out the resist so that the flap layers could felt together! But I enjoy learning this way rather than planning things in detail.

I laid out some fibres in shades of olive green, deep red, orangey red for the inside of the bag.

Then I laid out a layer of white followed by a layer of almost pillar box red wool. This has warmed up the white and blue colours after felting as the fibres migrated through. I omitted the red layer on the flap so that it would have just 4 and not 6 layers.


On top of the final layer of white wool I added drifts of varied shades of blue wool for the sky. Then laid out the felt and silk leaves, and a few pieces of curly tops in green and ochre.
Here's the finished layout before felting. The scraps of silk left over after cutting out the leaves are just sprinkled onto the surface for additional colour and texture.

I also had some scraps left over from the pre-felted leaves which I used in the cord for the handle.

And I made a few more leaves which I sewed onto the cord for decoration. It fastens using a felt cord loop and a yew wood button which my husband had fun making for me from an old piece of turned wood he had picked up in a charity shop. Oh yes, and it also has a pocket on the outside, which I need to find a way to strengthen as it is a bit on the flimsy side, but will hold a mobile phone OK.

The silk leaves crinkled up nicely, although one or two needed a couple of stitches to hold them in place firmly.

And you can see the silk I laid out on the inside just above the pocket here. I love the colours and definitely want to make some more bags based on natural themes of leaves and flowers.

Autumn Nasturtium and Convolvulus

Nature's colour schemes at this time of year (October) are just wonderful. Rich oranges and yellows of nasturtium with pale mauve blue discs of convolvulus, sprinkled with sprays of white sweet alyssum (thank goodness for the internet as I had to look up that last name). I wanted to capture them in a small felt piece and test an idea I had for a 3D effect on the flowers.

Firstly I made some orange, yellow and green pre-felts. I cut out the flower shapes and the leaf shapes. The leaves I embroidered with very fine white wool to create the veins, and the flowers I used red and orange silk thread. Here they are before I felted them into the bigger piece.

I laid out a layer of white followed by two layers of green merino wool tops. Then I added the leaves. For the flowers I cut discs of plastic just larger than the flower itself, and cut out the centre so that the flower would felt in leaving the petals free at the edges. Then I added small twists of various blues for the columbine flowers and a sprinkling of white wool nepps. I also added a few wool tapestry threads to suggest leaves and stems and a couple of curly wensleydale locks and silk threads for texture.

Here it is after felting - the flowers worked reasonably well, although I had to cut one or two of the petals free from the background felt. Next time I will make the plastic resists larger. I wondered whether to work the background felt more but for now I love the simplicity of this piece with a few little bits of embroidery around the leaf shapes - they did seem to become a bit lost in the felting process - and in the convolvulus flowers. This idea will hopefully become a bag one day ........ watch this space!

Clematis flowers

I love clematis flowers in all their varieties but haven't been terribly successful at growing them, probably because I can be a bit of a fairweather gardener at times, and I forget the important things like mulching and feeding. I recently acquired some gorgeous iridescent inks which I had to try out, so here is my clematis flower picture. All the petals are created using water soluble wax pastels on thin japanese paper which holds its strength when wet. I just love the way the colours can then blend either with a bit of rubbing or in their own way with the flow of the water along the fibres of the paper. I'll create another post about this painting technique as I keep being asked about it - and yes, it is paper not silk!

I added a few brush strokes of iridescent ink to the centres of these petals after I cut them out, then glued them to a large sheet of card.

More recently these became the inspiration for a wet felted seamless clematis bag

Reversible Tree Bag

I enjoy making the insides of my bags as beautiful as the outside, and in this one I decided to make a bag with two different takes on a tree theme. This could even be the same tree in two different seasons. I used tapestry wool for the branches and it's felted together nicely acquiring the bumps and wrinkles that resemble the texture of bark.

I've taken an idea here from my paintings (using water soluble wax pastels on special japanese paper). I so love the silhouettes of trees against a winter evening sky and am endlessly fascinated by their different shapes which are revealed when all the leaves have fallen.

Floral Fantasy

This one I laid out yesterday afternoon. I realised I was feeling under pressure to work quickly so that I would have time to wet it out and finish it by the evening. Patience! So then I decided to slow down and just focus on getting the layout the way I wanted it. Several times I walked away, had another idea whilst doing something else, then came back and adjusted or added bits! Then this morning there was this delicious pile of colourful wool just waiting to be turned into felt and I was like a little kid at Christmas, all excited and impatient. My shower and breakfast all got put on hold whilst I dived into the job of wetting, rubbing, rolling, throwing (there are some silk pieces which I wanted to get that lovely crinkly texture from) and rinsing. It's now sitting in the sunshine drying, and I will be adding beading and embroidery in the days and weeks to come - something to look forward to now the evenings are darker.

I made loads of varied coloured pre-felts yesterday, some cords and some dragonfly wings. The wings I made from organza which I trapped between two layers of solufleece (the amazing water soluble fabric). I then machine stitched around some dragonfly wing shapes which I'd traced onto the solufleece. When I had finished stitching I washed away the solufleece and was left with gorgeous shimmering wings. When I do this next time I won't add so much stitching to the pattern inside the wing shapes as I think it does look a little bit heavy.

The final layout before wetting out

I made some short cords using tapestry wool and sprinkled angelina over them to create the dragonfly bodies. They didn't felt into the main piece all that well - the wings did (and perhaps next time I will stitch a piece of plastic behind to ensure they don't felt in) but the body was a bit loose, so I'll need to secure it with some stitches.




And here it is drying in the sun.

Dragonfly became a bit fatter than I wanted

The silk fabric is showing nicely in the sky all textured up

Clematis Bag

I love clematis flowers but sadly am not a keen enough gardener to grow them very well. So I put them into my paintings and now also into felt. I made the clematis flowers first as pre-felts, embellished with small twists of bamboo fibre. I also made a few variegated green cords to use for stems. Some of these ended up sitting slightly proud which I like because it gives a bit of varied texture.

Then I set about making the bag using a plastic resist - unfortunately I didn't take any before and after pictures so it's difficult to show the lovely purple inside pocket. When I added the flowers, two of them were a little too large, so I scrunched them up in the middle to make them fit.

I added a magnetic bag clasp from bag-clasps.co.uk but I'm not sure if it's a bit too strong for the felt which I didn't really harden as I prefer softer felt. The first time I put my purse into it, the handle came off, so I've tightened the knot and secured it with a few stitches just in case!