Plum Purse with Upcycled Bling

This purse started out to be a gift for my mother, but I have another one in mind to make that she might like better. The next one will be somewhat more subdued. We shall see which one she chooses! Either one must have a cross body strap, interior pockets and a flat bottom.  

The felted decorations are pre felts from two beaded silk skirts from the Goodwill. The turquoise one my friend Sharon bought for my stash.

The trim on the top of the purse is an up cycled beaded silk belt from J Crew. The bits of green are hand spun merino and bamboo yarn cut into short lengths. It only took a few minutes to card the fiber to blend and to spin on the drop spindle.

The wool color of the main part is called plum. It is merino from Ashford. It might be called plum, but it really is a rich purple-brown. The strap is the cross body leather strap from a Brahmin purse. The strap was never used, as the original purse has carry handles, too. 

Floral Nuno Felted Wrap

Nuno felted silk flowers (up-cycled from a skirt) on custom hand dyed merino, silk, and bamboo fibers.

More Curly Locks with Batik

There's a lot going on with this purse. Curly locks, bright batik, and bling on the upcycled strap. I like the felted pockets inside because I am forever digging through receipts and glasses cases and STUFF while trying to locate one item in my purse.

Union Jack

With all the buzz over the Olympics and the Jubilee the Union Jack is popping up everywhere. This was wet felted and then quilted. Three pockets are felted inside and it is finished out with upcycled indigo batik cotton fabric and an leather braided belt for a strap.

Hand Spun Yarn Wet Felted Pillow

Recently, I had an uninterrupted evening to spin with the drop spindle. But since I'm not a big crocheter or knitter, the yarn ended up felted into two BFL / cashgora blend pillows. These are not my usual style, as there are no shouting colors. 

Wet felted Upholstry Fabric

A thrifted metal chair with a broken seat needed a pick-me-up. The fabric is nuno felted on silk to give it integrity and keep it from stretching too much. The pattern was inspired by an image in the book Gaia Star Mandalas: Ecstatic Visions of the Living Earth by Bonnie Bell and David Todd.

Felting, Dyeing, Sewing, Pricing, Listing and Blogging

This started out as an experiment nuno felting some tightly woven silk, but the weave was so tight the wool fibers would not migrate through. I peeled off the silk and had a basic natural white purse. That simply would not do, so after looking at it hanging on a skirt hangar for ages I got out the dyes.

I've been resisting doing a lot of dyeing. If a purse takes a couple of hours to lay out, a couple of hours to felt, and an hour or two to finish, adding dyeing to the process makes for a mighty expensive item in terms of man-hours. Or woman-hours.

But maybe that resistance was ill founded? I really like this purse. I like it better than the dark red one I am carrying now. In fact, I am tempted to make another one in another color with the same two interior pockets and a dark bottom with a bright top.