My Latest Felted Purse

This little felted purse was created for Anna Karr, Aaron's 16 year old sister. It was for her Birthday on 3-23.

I started out with some hand dyed fabric my friend, Vonda, gave me. I backed it with stabilizer that would wash out and proceeded to layer hand dyed wool/silk blend roving, pure hand dyed silk fibers, hand spun and dyed wool yarn created by my Idaho friend, Elizabeth, and white angora bunny fur I picked up at a fiber fair.

After finishing the felting, I washed the felted fabric, allowed to dry over night, then backed it, using a fusible mesh, with more of the material I started with as a base for the felting. Fusing the two layers gave stability to the finished purse. The fabric then became a nice smooth lining. I folded the felted and fused fabric to form the purse shape, trimmed it up a bit and stitched up the sides with the wool yarn. I then added a yo-yo made from more of the hand dyed material and embellished that with wool and silk yarns and strands of beads I put together from my bead stash.

I used a metallic gold button from my grandmother's button box and some gold elastic cording as a fastener. The strap was crocheted using more of Elizabeth's hand dyed wool yarn and some wonderful hand dyed silk yarn from Vonda's stash. I have precious little of this left.

Aaron and Rachel picked up the barely finished purse the night before his sisters Birthday. I told them what all went into making this little one-of-a-kind work of art and how much time it took to make, but everything I said seemed to go over their heads. Understandable . . . they are musicians, not fiber artists. I just hope Anna likes it and will give it the care it deserves. If I were making this to sell, it would be at least $35. My creations are like my children. It is nice to know they are going to a good home when they leave the safety and security of their mama's nest.