{"id":2628,"date":"2011-10-21T17:57:55","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T21:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/?p=2628"},"modified":"2016-11-23T20:38:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T01:38:00","slug":"felted-tote-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/","title":{"rendered":"Felted Tote Bag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi all! Sorry I haven’t posted in the last couple of days.\u00a0 I spent all day yesterday organizing my attic. <\/em>Phew! My attic is a walk-up –\u00a0picture a giant closet the size of the footprint of our house.\u00a0 It’s nice to have all the easily accessible storage, but there’s the ever present danger of accumulating Too. Much. Stuff.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, it’s done and looking as beautiful as an attic can get.\u00a0 I’ve made lists of stuff to give away and lists of stuff to sell, listed a bunch of stuff on Craigslist, sent out emails, and now I finally have time to show you this project I picked up from\u00a0Renaissance Leather this week.<\/p>\n

\"felted-tote-complete-001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s my cat, Oliver, helping with the photography.<\/p>\n

I’m not much of a knitter, but I think I’m going to love this felted tote bag.\u00a0 The handles may look long in proportion to the bag, but they’re a perfect comfortable length for carrying on the shoulder.\u00a0 I like the leather handles\u00a0a lot more than if I had done knitted ones.<\/p>\n

Here’s a rough outline of how to make your own felted tote:<\/p>\n

Buy two 100 gram skeins of a wool yarn that specifies it’s good for felting.\u00a0 I used Paton’s Classic Wool.\u00a0 One skein was\u00a0a solid, Royal Purple, and the other was a variegated that had the same purple in it, Palais. Make sure it is good for felting, some wool yarns are coated so they won’t felt.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cast on 100 stitches onto a largish pair of circular needles (I think I used 11’s.)<\/p>\n

Stitch around and around, changing colors of yarn whenever it pleases you.\u00a0 (The pattern I had said to change the yarn every two rows, but that was way too much work.)<\/p>\n

When your tote is not quite twice as long as you’d like it to be, throw in some decreases\u00a0 for about six rows if you feel like it.\u00a0 This will give your bag a tapered bottom.\u00a0 My bag measured 27″ long x 14″ wide before felting, and felted down to 14″ long x 11.5″ wide.<\/p>\n

The pattern I had said\u00a0 once done with the decreases to cut the yarn to a 12″ length and use a tapestry needle to thread it through all the remaining stitches on the needles, sliding them off and using the yarn to pull the stitches into tight gathers.\u00a0 This is what it will look like. I wasn’t sure I cared for the look, but did like not having to cast off!<\/p>\n

\"felted-bag-before\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because I couldn’t stand the thought of those extra bits of yarn hanging around, I made them into a pocket.<\/p>\n

\"felted-tote-bag-pocket-before\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(See what I mean about not being much of a knitter?)<\/p>\n

All the felting directions I’ve ever read said you need a top loading washing machine to do felting.\u00a0 I don’t have access to a top load machine, so I went looking online for directions how to felt by hand.\u00a0 Everything I saw, again, looked like WAY too much work.\u00a0 So I threw my bag and pocket into a lingerie bag and put in a front load machine.\u00a0 It worked just fine. I threw it in for two cycles and got a nice, thick felt.<\/p>\n

Here’s the pocket:<\/p>\n

\"felted-tote-bag-pocket-after\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After taking the bag out of the wash, I decided I hated<\/em> that rounded gathered bottom.\u00a0 Thankfully, the gathering\u00a0yarn pulled right out, even after felting.\u00a0 Here’s the bag after I flattened out the bottom.\"felted-tote-bag-after-felting-removing-stitching\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a fun trick for giving any bag a square bottom.\u00a0 First stitch straight across the bottom of your bag.\u00a0 Now meet the bottom seam to one side of your bag, forming a corner.<\/p>\n

\"felted-tote-bag-mark-corners\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark a line perpendicular to the bottom seam.\u00a0 The length of this line will be how wide you bag bottom will be.\u00a0 Repeat on the other side and stitch on these lines.<\/p>\n

\"felted-tote-bag-make-square-bottom\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now your bag has a square bottom!<\/p>\n

The next step is optional, but I think it gives the bag a nice finish.\u00a0 Find a book or other large rectangular object the same size as your bag.\u00a0 If need be, protect it from moisture by putting it in plastic bags.\u00a0 Dampen your tote bag, then insert the blocking form (the book.)\u00a0 Pull, pat, tug and shape your tote to just the size and shape you want.\u00a0 You’ll find the damp felt is quite malleable.\u00a0 Now let it dry completely on the form.<\/p>\n

\"felted-tote-bag-blocking\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(This photo was taken before I\u00a0decided to throw the bag into the wash for a second time, btw.)<\/p>\n

I really, really like how the leather\u00a0handles\u00a0add a finishing touch, much better than knitted handles, I think.<\/p>\n

Now if I could just find that dang pocket, I’ll use\u00a0my one last piece of yarn to sew it to the inside of the bag.\u00a0 \u00a0Probably by the time I find the pocket I’ll have lost the piece of yarn, lol.<\/p>\n

Here’s another look at the completed bag.<\/p>\n

\"felted-tote-complete-001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy crafting and creating!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi all! Sorry I haven’t posted in the last couple of days.\u00a0 I spent all day yesterday organizing my attic. Phew! My attic is a walk-up –\u00a0picture a giant closet the size of the footprint of our house.\u00a0 It’s nice to have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,186],"tags":[449,450,448],"class_list":["post-2628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crafts","category-tutorials","tag-felted-tote","tag-knitted-felted-tote","tag-knitting"],"yoast_head":"\nKeepsake Crafts - Sharing the Love of Creativity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"quilting, sewing, patterns, beads, jewelry, scrapbooking, card making, polymer clay, quilts, crafts, crafting, creative\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sandy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sandy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc\"},\"headline\":\"Felted Tote Bag\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-21T21:57:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-24T01:38:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/\"},\"wordCount\":817,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"felted tote\",\"knitted felted tote\",\"knitting\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Crafts\",\"Tutorials\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/\",\"name\":\"Keepsake Crafts - Sharing the Love of Creativity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-21T21:57:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-24T01:38:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"quilting, sewing, patterns, beads, jewelry, scrapbooking, card making, polymer clay, quilts, crafts, crafting, creative\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Felted Tote Bag\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Keepsake Crafts\",\"description\":\"Creative Tutorials That Inspire!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc\",\"name\":\"Sandy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/channel-icon-800x800-flattened.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/channel-icon-800x800-flattened.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Sandy\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"I\u2019ve rarely met a craft I didn\u2019t like, and have all the gadgetry to prove it. \ud83d\ude42 You\u2019ll often find me in my studio where I design and make polymer clay & jewelry tutorials, sculpt polymer clay figures, dragons, beads, charms and dolls, sew garments, quilts & home decor and even make the occasional scrapbook page, card or paper craft. Crafting, sewing and making things with my hands have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I\u2019ve often been asked to teach my crafts, and have found I love doing so. My online tutorials, in PDF and video, as far as I\u2019m concerned, are the ultimate teaching tools. Be sure to subscribe so you don\u2019t miss a thing. It\u2019s my hope that with every post you will come away enriched and inspired to take what you\u2019ve learned and make it your own. If I do that, I consider myself successful.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/KeepsakeCraftsCreate\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sandysewin\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/sandysewin\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/keepsakecraftssandyhuntress\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Keepsake Crafts - Sharing the Love of Creativity","description":"quilting, sewing, patterns, beads, jewelry, scrapbooking, card making, polymer clay, quilts, crafts, crafting, creative","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sandy","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/"},"author":{"name":"Sandy","@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc"},"headline":"Felted Tote Bag","datePublished":"2011-10-21T21:57:55+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-24T01:38:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/"},"wordCount":817,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg","keywords":["felted tote","knitted felted tote","knitting"],"articleSection":["Crafts","Tutorials"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/","url":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/","name":"Keepsake Crafts - Sharing the Love of Creativity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg","datePublished":"2011-10-21T21:57:55+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-24T01:38:00+00:00","description":"quilting, sewing, patterns, beads, jewelry, scrapbooking, card making, polymer clay, quilts, crafts, crafting, creative","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/crafts\/felted-tote-complete-001.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/felted-tote-bag\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Felted Tote Bag"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/","name":"Keepsake Crafts","description":"Creative Tutorials That Inspire!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/83a364fc2641e96eb1d1af37a92142cc","name":"Sandy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/channel-icon-800x800-flattened.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/channel-icon-800x800-flattened.jpg","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Sandy"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"I\u2019ve rarely met a craft I didn\u2019t like, and have all the gadgetry to prove it. \ud83d\ude42 You\u2019ll often find me in my studio where I design and make polymer clay & jewelry tutorials, sculpt polymer clay figures, dragons, beads, charms and dolls, sew garments, quilts & home decor and even make the occasional scrapbook page, card or paper craft. Crafting, sewing and making things with my hands have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I\u2019ve often been asked to teach my crafts, and have found I love doing so. My online tutorials, in PDF and video, as far as I\u2019m concerned, are the ultimate teaching tools. Be sure to subscribe so you don\u2019t miss a thing. It\u2019s my hope that with every post you will come away enriched and inspired to take what you\u2019ve learned and make it your own. If I do that, I consider myself successful.","sameAs":["http:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/KeepsakeCraftsCreate\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sandysewin","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/sandysewin","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/keepsakecraftssandyhuntress"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2628"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10760,"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions\/10760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepsakecrafts.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}