Hey Mister Tambourine Man..

I LOVE that song.. have done since I was a little girl :)  A couple months ago someone asked whether it would be possible to felt a tambourine bag.. and the idea really took hold, I just had to make one!  

And all the while Mr Tambourine Man was playing in my head :)

Pictures of hand print cave paintings & rough notes

I drew round and cut out my hand print.. then made some smaller ones
(reduced in size on a photocopier)

Carefully drew round these hand print templates onto white commercial prefelt
and cut them out

I made a block (the same size as a tambourine) from a couple of cake-boards
and Styrofoam and lots of tape.

I started off by covering the resist with white Falkland 

Then layers adding in brown merino..
and slubby red yarn on the final layer.
Total of 6 layers each side

Then the hand print and bits of red and dark blue merino scattered over to 
represent the speckles on the cave paintings

Starting side 2 design.. tiny hand prints

Part way through

Once the resist was removed I worked it really hard, throwing and pummelling

When it had shrunk down enough I put the block I'd made inside and worked the edges for ages

Rolling with my ridged stick really helped for this stage

I roughly stitched the opening closed over the resist

Worked 'till it really tightened it up as hard as possible

I removed the block while I was rinsing it, but put it back in so it would dry in the shape I wanted.

With handle sewn on

Drying

I made the handle from the same Falkland, merino and slubby yarn mix with the addition of some
lovely white Wensleydale curls at the ends.

I like the red and blue 'bits' scattered over

My hand print looks like a 10 year olds hand now :)

And these look like baby hands

I found a lovely strong zip for this bag.. it's hand stitched in

I don't have a photo of it with a tambourine yet.. but will have soon I hope.  I had borrowed one from a friend and she needed it back before I finished the bag.. as soon as I can I shall have to try the fit and take a photo.