Experimental Embellishment Bag

About a month ago I took a felting class offered by a member of our local ASG. The class was on hand felting as well as using the Babylock Embellisher. I immediately learned that I will never be a hand felter and I was the only way to actually felt a finger! Ouch!

The afternoon part of the class was using the Babylock Embellisher, which I loved! I have had my Embellisher since after Christmas and have played with it off and on. This class opened up a lot of potential design elements for me and allowed all of us in the class to play and experiment with different fibers-fabric, wool and silk roving, yarns, lace, silk flowers (minus the plastic fixtures) and more.

We were tasked with making something from our embellished experiments-pillow, purse, tote bag, whatever. I spent several days playing around with my fabric piece, which was leftover from a coat I made. I experiemented to my hearts desire.

Last weekend I decided to turn the experiment into a purse using a McCall's pattern that came with the booklet by Nancy Zieman of Nancy's Notions on embellished purses. This is a great pattern, as it is very simple to make. I used information from her booklet and used duck cloth for the interlining instead of fusible fleece which I am prone to use most. I used fat quarter fabric I have had aging in my stash for a long time for the linining. Here is the finished project. Now that I have played with various fibers and such I am ready to make some more fabric to turn into purses and jackets.

Front view

Back view



Inside of bag.

Full view hanging.