In last night’s blog post I stated the following:
My plan for tomorrow morning (after a strong cup of coffee and some breakfast), is to finish securing the pieces and adjusting the placement of the handles. This will leave the afternoon to finish the process of felting.
My morning (happily) went as planned.
Once my son was off to school, and breakfast was done, I got out the assortment of yarns I had been using to more firmly secure the decorative elements of Michele Wilcox’s Rose Garden Tote, my trusty Clover bent-tipped yarn needle, and with a strong cup of Major Dickason’s Blend at the ready to fuel my efforts, I got to work.
Despite the sort of interruptions one experiences when one stays at home, by noon, I had secured all of the leaves, flowers, and curliques in need of additional securing, as well as crocheted a slip stitch around the top of the bag to pull in the sides a bit and make the top edge of the bag a bit firmer:
With everything in place, it was time to begin work on the final felting.
I got out my power washer, my Shout color-catcher sheets, a bottle of Dawn ultra dish detergent, and a gallon of white vinegar.
I put in way too much of the dish detergent and ended up using a good amount of the vinegar to eliminate as many of the bubbles as I could. While some bubbles help with felting, the pressure washer full of them that I had created was not helpful as the tote was more or less ensconced in a protective cocoon of them.
But my goal was to rehab this bag, so I persisted, taking occasional breaks to play with my dog and drink coffee. Eventually, I had put in enough vinegar to eat through the bubbles, and then, right around 3:00, the felting began to coalesce, and while there was still a bit of work to be done, it was apparent that the piece was nearly finished.
Once I was satisfied that there was no more felting to be done, I removed the tote from the pressure washer and wrung out as much of the water as I could by rolling it between towels; when all was said and done, here is how it looked:
So, in answer to yesterday’s question, “Can this bag be saved?” I think the answer is a resounding, yes.
