March 12, 2008

Crocheted and felted clutch

Felt crafts of all types are all the rage right now. I’ve been crocheting and felting totes and clutches for several months now so thought I’d share this simple little project. If you can SC (single crochet), you can make this clutch in less than a few hours and for less than $5 (that’s WITH your 40% Michael's coupon).


All it takes is one skein of wool and a size 6 hook. I use Patons Classic Merino Wool. You must use 100% wool or it won’t felt.

My inspiration for this clutch was a leather bag I drooled over in a magazine. Since I winged this one, there isn’t a true pattern. I just chained the length of the desired base, keeping in mind that felting will reduce the size by approximately 30%. SC several rows then SC in the round until it reached the height that I wanted. No adding or reducing required. The only tricky bit was leaving a gap for the handle. The nice thing about felting your crocheted pieces is that it’s very forgiving and you’re not going to notice any small errors.

Here comes the fun part. Throw your completed bag in the wash, preferably in a zippered pillowcase or lingerie bag. Toss in an old pair of jeans to help agitate and wash hot on the lowest water setting. After one cycle check it. It should feel thick and dense and there shouldn’t be any visible stitches. Different colours and types of wool shrink differently so you might want to pop it in again (it will shrink a little more).

Before:

After:



Once you have the desired look simply air dry and add some cute little embellishments (or not) and voila, you have the cutest little felted clutch bag in town!

Ms. Crafty says: kasanika is a second time guest blogger on MCIYN... you can view her Etsy store here...

1 comments:

DoubleM said...

I can't wait to try this! I went and bought a crap load of wool yarn and I am ready to go! Wish me luck :o)

P.S. That bag is awesome.