Needle Felted Embellished Bag

Embellishments of Felted Bags

Accents using Needle Felting, Cut Felt and Cords

The Easy Way!

This is a small gift bag I made for the Ashford Spinning Wheel Company of New Zealand.

It was published in their newsletter "The Wheel" in 2004.

I had just discovered needle felting when I made this bag. It was fun to tease apart pieces of yarn and other fiber scraps then blend them together with a felting needle to make leaves and berries. I needlefelted these and a “vine” made of yarn to the felted bag.

Now, The Easy Way!

I'm a beginning needlefelter just like you. I poked around all my books and Googled like mad to figure this basic needlefelting thing out. In a short time I'd ordered my tools. With the basic tools in hand I made this design and placed it on the bag within an hour or two. It is that easy!

I always remind knitters who make my bag designs to swatch. Felted swatches are great for practicing needlefelting. A second of my basic bag design tips is that swatches make great pockets on a finished bag. Wouldn't an embellished swatch make an even better pocket?

Close-up of the easy needle felting used for this bag.

Plied Cord is another easy embellishment:

This bag is named A Little Flattery (because it goes a long way). It's a "swatch" I made while designing Flattery.

Basic directions for making this style bag are included as a bonus with my Simple Flattery pattern.

Note the plied cord is used as edge trim, strap and ends in tassles. Simple?

(Basic Plied Cord directions are at bottom of this page.)

Sewn-on felted Knit-cord (aka I-cord). Embellishment used on my Simple Flattery bag.

The pattern says "Create designs with lengths of knit-cord in a Celtic knot, monogram or favorite motif as in the cover photo of Simple Flattery". Plied cord or tightly twisted bulky yarns also work.

Cut Felt pieces sewn to fabric

Cut felt (from some swatch fabric) as a stylized Oregon Coast Raven. Three shapes sewn on a finished felted bag with a knot or bead as an eye.

I sometimes use this little guy (gal?) to dress up my Oregon Totes.

Making Plied Cord: © 2006 KnitKit.com Cut 3 pieces of yarn 3 times the desired length of the finished cord. Holding the three strands together, fold the group in half. Hook the fold onto something sturdy and twist each group of three in a clockwise direction until it is very tight and begins to kink. Hold both overtwisted halves together and let them twist back on themselves in a counterclockwise direction creating a single six-strand cord. Knot or bind the ends to keep them twisted, Trim the folded end creating tassels if desired.

These photos are presented as food for thought. Embellishments do not need to be complicated. I use them like a bow on a package. The finishing touch.

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