Drawstring and hole question

[losingmymind2]

I want to make a drawstring on the bag I plan to felt. It's bulky weight wool; and I don't know now to make an i-cord. I want to try a braid, but can I do it in wool or should I do leather afterthought strings?

 

Also the holes for the cord to go thru...will they stay open if I lightly felt the bag? I skipped one stitch, doing a chain instead.

[JCB]

One thing you can do for cords is take the yarn you are using in the bag, double it, have someone hold one end (or put it in a vise or something similar) and twist, twist, twist. When it's really twisted almost as tight as it will go, put one finger in the middle and put some tension on it. It will twist back on itself. This looks really nice if you've used more than one color. Throw this in the pillow case or lingerie bag to felt it.... but don't put it through the purse yet. You might want to 'swatch' this cord to see how many pieces of cord to include, and how much it will shrink.

 

I don't know what will happen with your chain one space, but after the bag is felted, you can poke holes where you want the rope to go... stick a knitting needle it and wiggle until it is large enough for your cords. After the cord is in the bag the way you want it, tie a knot at each end.

 

Let us know how that works for you. I am right now working on a bag that I plan to felt and also put some sort of cord through to make the handle.

 

I'm new to this whole felting thing myself, and I'm always amazed to see the results. The bags look so loose and floppy before they're felted.

 

Joan

[nataleeza]

I made a felted spindle case, with a drawstring (my blog entry is here).

 

I was worried that the holes would felt over (in this case I did it as dc, ch1, dc), so what I did was thread the holes with acrylic (cotton or something else that doesn't felt would work too).

 

So, when it was finished felting, the holes were there and I threaded a cord through. My cord was just a twisted and doubled over length of the unfelted yarn I made the carrier with.

[Roli]

Natalie,

 

That's a great idea! I personally noticed that my felted cord had a tendency to put too much stress on the hole I poked through the fabric. I ended up by attaching the back of the cord to the lining so that it wouldn't pull on the hole so much. But I only had one layer of felting since I hadn't folded the sides inward.

[C.D.]

Great advice Joan. That is what I would have told her. I like the cording idea too.

 

The only thing I would add is; check very often throughout the fulling process to untangle.

I just felted twisted cording for some belts I have been making and did have to untangle throughout the process.

[evelyn]

I just felted my first bag ever, I didnt know how to do the drawstring, I finly croched a chain done the top for holes with dc, ch1, skip 1 , then put my chain in before I felted it they felted together and I couldnt pull the strrings but with help from Deneen I used a knitting needle and pulled the hole open then pulled the strings to loosen them .it worked fine, a picture is on my blog