Free felted purse patterns

This is one of the best beginner free felted purse patterns we seen. Entitled Amanda’s Squatty Sidekick it’s quick and easy to knit, 2 or 3 evenings for an experienced knitter and not much longer for a novice.

The original of these free felted purse patterns uses Manos Del Uruguay wool.

My sister and I each knitted this pattern for our own personal use and love both the pattern and the resulting felted bags.

We substituted wools readily available to us. My sister knitted the lighter coloured bag (in the photo) using 5 x 50g (250g total required) Panda’s “Woolbale” Col 103 on a set of 8mm double pointed needles. The wool was used double throughout. Single strand yarn wouldn’t have resulted in a bag firm enough to leave unlined after felting. Her button closure came from Lincraft.

I knitted the navy coloured bag in K-mart’s Homemaker “Clinker” from my wool stash. 3 x 100g (300g total required) using a 8mm circular needle and 8mm dpns for the handle. My navy button from Lincraft has little diamantes around the edge reflecting nicely against the dark background.

As you can see from the photo the navy version is larger than the free felted bag pattern, purposely so. I added 4 extra rows of knitting between the end of the increase and the beginning of the decrease on the body of the bag. I also added 4 rows to the beginning and ending of the strap/handle to make it more of a shoulder bag.

Both types of wool used are 8ply equivalent (DK/worsted). Knitted, then felted, with double strand of wool makes the felted bag thick enough not to require lining.

Alternative yarns we could have used :

Holiday 8ply 100percent wool (only if includes felting symbol) from K-martLincraft 8ply purple label for felting wool (check label specifies “ for felting”)

The link to download these free felted purse patterns is listed lower down the page, in the meantime if you are not familiar with felting you can find good instructions and photos on our felting techniques and instructions page, also details and photos showing how to block this type of bag on our how to block felted bags page. (both above pages open in new windows so you can close the window and return here)

HINT : When you sew your fancy button onto the outside of an unlined bag- back it on the inside of the bag with a flat button of a colour that blends in with the colour of your bag (or as close to the colour as you can find). By this I mean when you sew your fancy button on the front sew right through the bag and through a flat button you have placed on the inside of the bag - you are sewing both buttons on at the same time. This prevents your fancy button pulling and stretching your bag fabric with use - the flat button inside will hardly be noticeable.

ANOTHER HINT: How to store this shaped purse. One of the attractions with this purse is its lovely flat bottom. To keep this shape in between uses we suggest you store it, lightly stuffed and closed, flat on a shelf. I store mine stuffed with a plastic freezer bag filled with un-carded and unspun alpaca. My sister stores hers stuffed with a freezer bag full of bean-bag fill.

Our personal thanks to knittingdaily.com for generously providing free felted purse patterns. To obtain your - free for personal use - download go to knittingdaily (a new window will open, close it to return here)

To top of this free felted purse patterns page.

View more felted bag patterns

Go to Houghton Avenue yarn craft ideas home page