Cheater Booga

While we were searching high and low for a second-hand three-piece suit for my son to wear in the school play I came across a thick wool sweater. I'm sure I photographed it because I intended to felt it and cut it up. Of course I can't find the before photo. Here's the after:

I used wool yarn and sewed it before I felted it. With the sweater inside out I lined up the front and back of the sweater and sewed across just above the waistband. Then I sewed straight up the front of the sweater from the waistband to about halfway up the armhole about two inches from the side seam so it is perpendicular to the sewn line at the waist. I repeated that on the other side of the front. As shown in this breathtaking artist's rendering right here:

I then cut out the whole thing about half to three quarters of an inch away from the sewn line (shown in red) and cut straight across the top. What I had left was a big rectangle with three sewn sides and an open top.

To make the bottom I matched up the side seams and tucked the bottom seam up between them so the side view looked something like this:

I determined how deep I wanted the bag bottom to be (keeping in mind that the fabric was going to shrink by at least a third when I felted it) and sewed across both points of the sides where it was that length. Like so:

I cut away the excess fabric on the point there and then turned the bag right side out, put it in a lingerie bag and tossed it in the washing machine on the lowest water level, with the hottest water temperature and a little bit of laundry detergent then promptly forgot about it. "How is that possible?" You may ask. Well, I have five children and they are really distracting sometimes. Seriously, they don't care that I was in the middle of something else. All they know is that it wasn't about them so, in their minds, it doesn't count; it's not important. 

About half an hour later I retrieved my shrunken bag from the depths of the washing machine and it had shrunk quite a bit. I shaped it into a basic squared bottom bag shape, with the sides pinched in to gather it a bit at the top and left it to dry.

What you may not know about me is that I have the patience of a sugared-up, five-year old when it comes to things like this. So after waiting what felt like an eternity but was probably only an hour, I put it in the dryer. It came out just fine. Kind of fuzzy, which I like, but otherwise fine.

I then skewered it through the front, the pinched in side and the back to make a total of four holes on each side. Through this I threaded a felted six stitch i-cord which I knotted to itself in one of the side pleats.

It's not the best photo but I couldn't get the bag to stay still. Okay maybe it was me the couldn't stay still, I'm not sure. This is the top down view of the bag and you can see how I threaded it and sort of make out the knot there on the left. It's a square knot and I pulled it really tight then cut off the ends leaving just a little bit sticking out of the knot.

I did this yesterday so I haven't used it yet. I'll keep you posted.

Comments

[Claudia]

Just awesome. You put me to shame with my rectangle thing. Sigh.

[Judi Young]

Can you explain the "sewing" part of this sweater? I don't understand totally, did you hand sew it and with normal thread?
I love the bag.
Judi

[Nerys]

Hi,

You were the inspiration that led me to make felted bags from recycled jumpers and for that I thank you.
I started a blog a week ago and am just about to add you to my links...I hope this is ok with you?
Go well,
Nerys Purchon

[Ellen-Mary]

Nerys, I am honored to be anyone's inspiration. You are most welcome even though I didn't actively do anything for you. Don't you love the way the universe works? I like your blog and since I may never set foot in Australia I can enjoy it vicariously through you. Thank you for that and it would be a pleasure to be one of your links.

Ellen-Mary