Silly Goose

Yay, Im so excited! I have this morning finished my first Silly Goose bag! I know I started it a couple of weeks ago, but with one thing and another after the first day whan I actually felted the bag I just didnt get chance to carry on with it. This project has held lots of `firsts` for me.

My goosey is an inlay. I cut him out of a spare piece of white felt, rummaged round till I found scraps of yellow & orange for his beak & feet, and laid them in position on top of the fibre that I had already laid out...then felted it all together. His bandly legs, the flowers & grass are embroidered on by hand once the bag was dry, as is the `silly goose` slogan at the top. This is the first time Ive used an inlay in a project - Ive played a little before with using inlays on felted soaps, but this was much more fun.

A while ago I had been thinking about bag linings... then later that day I considered the different resists I have used in my bag making... and it suddenly occured to me how when I used a calico resist the fibres felted to the resist so strongly. I started wondering how it would work to sew a simple bag lining first - then felt onto it. The more I thought about it the more I couldnt wait to try it out. So I did & it worked really well. Its such an obvious evolution Im sure many other felters are sure to have worked this out long ago :o) but Im thrilled to bits that its worked so nicely. I sewed a zippy pocket seperately & hand stitched that into the bag, along with...

My own label :o) As I dont have a website, but do have this blog & a couple of online shops I thought the best point of contact to put on the label was my blog (just hope that doesnt seem odd / unprofessional) as it has links to other places to find / contact me.

There is a very interesting post in Shalana The Funk Felters blog about labeling, and she very kindly gives instructions for making your own labels. I have followed Shalanas `how-to` with my labels & Im really happy with them - thank you Shalana :o) I used the Avery dark t-shirt transfer paper onto calico; the labels, now that they are well washed, feel & look rather like kid leather! The colours changed slightly with the heat from the iron (maybe I had it too hot) I think that was a happy accident though - I prefer the colours as they are now.

The sheepy on the label is a stamp that I carved myself - based on my trademark sheepy from my Feelin Sheepish range. Im using him to make my own note paper for when I ship orders & stamping on the packaging just for fun

Oh yes, nearly forgot, I made the button too! I had a morning playing with fimo clay making buttons last week - this is one of `em. I`ll try & remember to take photos of the rest & post that ?tomorow... or this week at any rate :o)

I`m having a couple of really lovely days! Yesterday my friend Clare came to visit Clare is a fellow fibre addict :o) we had a lovely girly day AND a visit to a wool shop!

And then I got my lovely little car back from the garage :o) Somebody drove into me a couple days before Christmas, he didnt want to go through his insurance & said he would pay for the repair, unfortunately he then proved to be a real pain. All the stress really got to me and made me quite ill (another reason why I havent been very productive) but yesterday afternoon I got my Suky (how sad - I named my car :o) back all mended, bright & shiny and good as new! The garage valeted it beautifully - so Im a relaxed and happy bunny again now ;o)

On that bright & cheery note Im going to dash off and make some prefelt for the inlays for my next Silly Goose bags... xxx