Sunday 31 May 2009

Feltmaking Day

I had a brilliant day the Sunday before last, on a felt making course. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but for Christmas, my little sis bought me a voucher for a felt making course with author of Complete Feltmaking, Gillian Harris

My friend Val and I drove down to Gillian's house in Capel, near Dorking in Surrey. It was a beautiful day, and being Sunday we had a good drive down with little traffic. We arrived early and we sat in Gillian's garden drinking coffee, until the others arrived - there were six of us on the course altogether - two of the other women had been given the course as a Christmas present from their husbands - seems lots of people saw an article in Country Living featuring Gillian's work and had booked classes as a result.


We worked in the beautiful and well-equipped studio in the garden, where there were loads of felt bags on display, and lots of books for inspiration. There were lots of decisions to make - what shape bag to make, which colours of fleece to choose from the rainbow selection, what decoration did we want on the front, and on the inside (the bags can be reversible) - but we eventually make our decisions and started work. And it was surprisingly hard work on the arms - would be a great way to get rid of 'bingo wings' (if I didn't already have the body of a 19 year old, obviously)


We stopped for a delicious lunch which we had sitting in the garden, before going back to finish off our bags - and another decision - what sort of handles did we want?


Anyway, here are the finished results .....


This is the front of mine, now didn't you just KNOW it would have a heart somewhere


and this is the back (it was supposed to be the front, but the flower didn't turn out quite as I'd planned ....

This is my friend Val's - she incorporated a dangle-y bit from the bottom of hersAnd these are the others - sorry girls but I can't remember all your names
Oh yeah, and one of the class decided that she wanted to make a hanging, rather than a bag - it turned out beautifully ...

And more bags ... And just to prove they really are reversible - here's the inside of mine


It was a really excellent day and would thoroughly recommend it - plus it's so lovely to come home from a workshop with something finished! I may have to go back and do the felt jewellery day sometime.


3 comments:

  1. Bag looks good,19 year old, thought you were at least 21!

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  2. Hey.... You've won my giveaway! Bag looks great!

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  3. Your bags are lovely, who would of guessed there would be a heart in there some where.
    Congratulations on winning Gina's notebook.

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