Felted Diaper Bag

This project combines a couple of techniques.  You may remember earlier this year I attended a workshop and learned the process of wet felting.  At the shop I bought supplies to continue experimenting with the process of felting.  I had a vision of felting fabrics and then constructing a purse from the pieces.  Then I busied myself with other projects until now, remembering that the bag I intended to construct was a diaper bag, and the baby to go with the bag was due to make an appearance any day!  Quickly I went about reminding myself of the process and went about calculating the size and shape of the required pieces that would be needed to assemble my bag.  Below is a step-by-step story of how this came together.

Wet Felting Process

Materials gathered.  Bubble wrap, roving wool, soap, water, and tule. 

3 layers of roving wool (each layer in the opposite direction of the one adjacent to it).  Cover with tule on top.  Then water is sprinkled on top and allowed to penetrate through the layers.

Then using a mild bar soap rub the top of the tule.  Just a little soap is needed.  Then use your fingers to massage and agitate the layers of wet felt.  This action causes the layers to bind together.  Felt for as long as it takes for the pieces to hold together and the layers to bind.  Flip and agitate the opposite side as well.

Then move toward the sink.  Roll the felted piece between the bubble wrap and a bamboo sushi screen (I used a placemat), then wrap that with a towel, and roll the whole thing several times.  This is just additional felting and binds the fibers together further.  Repeat 10 times, rotating the direction of the felted piece each time.  Then rinse the piece to remove soap and allow to dry.  It can be stretched to desired shape and sized throughout this process.

I repeated this process several times and ended up with 4 felted pieces.  The 2 sections that were about 15"x18" of the main turquoise color, 1 multicolored accent piece, and one small pale aqua accent square.

Bag Construction

The hardest part of all this was cutting into these pieces of felt that took hours to construct!  But it had to be done.  I drew up the pattern pieces to utilize the majority of the felt I had made - very little was wasted.  Working with this new material meant experimenting with a couple of new methods of construction to make sure this bag would be sturdy enough to hold all the different items that a diaper bag needs to carry.  The first method was using exposed, tight zig-zag seams on the felt (I used the button hole setting).  This just seemed like a stronger stitch with such a potentially fragile exterior material.  Man I went through a ton of thread!  The second thing was that I spent a lot of time reinforcing the lining of the bag.  I used a rather stiff fusible interfacing on all of the interior lining pieces to give the bag shape.  So essentially the interior of the bag is supporting the felted exterior.  My first time using the fusible interfacing and I really like it... this may become an essential component to all of my bag construction in the future.  I also really like the fabric I found for the interior lining:  a mint faux suede.  The lighter color keeps things from getting lost at the bottom of the bag.

The bag features two exterior side pockets for waterbottles/bottles.  3 interior pockets for storage of smaller items which require quick access like cellphones, keys, sunglasses, wallet.  Then a much larger central interior large enough for books, ipads, diapers, toys, wipes, and this great changing station from Skip Hop.  There is a magnetic closure at the top (that works best when the bag is less full).  We'll see how well this functions.  I'm concerned because it is mainly a shoulder bag without adjustable straps... it should work well for daily routines, but I may find myself needing more room or something more comfortable to carry for long periods of time (I prefer a bag with a longer strap that can be worn across the body in that situation).  In which case I'll just invent something new to meet those needs :).  Looking forward to giving this a try in the short term.