Hard at Work...Crafty Work That Is

It seems I've gotten on a roll and have managed to carve out more time than usual to work on unfinished projects. For instance, the drop stitch scarf is done! After months of languishing in a bag, then being "completed" but having an untimely accident in the finishing process, it really looks rather good. I decided not to add a fringe, since the yarn snags so easily anyway. I love the pattern I ended up using and will definitely do more in different yarns. Whoo hoo!

So, next on my list was the Mother Bear Project bear and I added a good 7 or 8 inches to that last night. I've done a few of these, enough to want to take liberties and push my creativity, so this one is going to be a hula dancing polar bear... don't laugh, I'm serious. Pics to come soon. I'm still looking for the sock pattern, so that left my recycled sweater purse needing some attention.

I was inspired by a tutorial on ChicKnits and started this project over my spring break. I was at Goodwill looking for some old jeans and sweatshirts to take on an outdoor trip and found two very nice looking 100% wool sweaters for $2 each. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking ahead and have no photos of the unfelted sweaters. Basically, I machine washed them to oblivion until they were densely felted and then put them in the dryer. Ouch! Next, I cut the sweaters apart at the seams, removed the arms, and spread everything out to see how much felted material I had to work with. Working with the first sweater, I cut out some templates on poster board in the shape I wanted for the purse and traced those in marker on the sweaters. I love the colors of this sweater, but needed to be careful because of the stripe pattern (matching up the front and back of the purse). Next, I pinned the two pieces inside out and sewed on three sides with my sewing machine. Unfortunately, on one side I got a little careless and did not watch my stripes, so there a jog, but I think it won't be that noticeable. I'll definitely watch for this in the future. So here's what I have so far. The tabs sticking up will be sewn down for purse strap loops.

So, this is where I picked up this morning. I've been thinking about the straps for a while and decided to do black i-cord, but I was also unhappy with the edge of the purse. It had an unfinished look to it that I didn't think would improve without work. If you look at the tabs, you see what I mean. I decided that a nice single crocheted edge in black would help , so I used a tool to push holes through the felt as I crocheted the border.

I think it looks pretty good and will felt the edge by hand using some hot soapy water. I have to get started on the i-cord straps next. Not sure of what length I want yet, but will play it by ear. The finished purse will have a black lining and magnetic snap. I've used these great tutorials on Hello Knitty.com (Purse lining tutorial--PDF and Magnetic snap tutorial--PDF) in the past to learn how to do this. I will post more purse pictures as I work.