Wet Felting a Bag with a shoulder strap

I have to say in advance that I am an almost self-taught felter, I have never had the occasion or the budget to join workshops or courses on wet felting and all I have learnt comes from the few free videos I have found online, the few tips and tricks that I have managed to gather and eventually A LOT of trial and error.

So I am not ashamed to admit that felting a bag has never come easy to me.

Particularly getting the strap (or handles) to actually join to the body of a bag during the wet felting process felt almost impossible.

I’d often end up with “orphaned” pieces of felt that refused to migrate together, leaving me to wait for the bag to dry so I could eventually needle-felt them into place. And, ok, in the end everything would look polished, but I couldn’t feel fully satisfied.

But this time? Finally something has changed.

The Project: A Tiny White Satchel

I decided to make a small, snowy-white bag for a child (that I am going to decorate with needle-felting later on). It’s a simple, dainty project, but it turned out to be the perfect canvas for testing a new technique. I used some incredible white roving that was, quite frankly, a dream to work with.

The “Magic” Connection

The highlight of this project wasn’t just the smooth surface or the sturdy shape—it was the strap.

For the first time ever, the fibers from the strap and the bag melded together perfectly during the wet stage. No gaps, no ugly patches, and absolutely no “emergency” needle felting required.

Why did I manage this time? I believe it comes down to essentially two things:

1. The wool was a dream to work with, it felted beautifully without giving me any issue whatsoever (just the day before I had tried felting something else with a different wool and it was a nightmare, so much so that I threw everything away)
2. This was the first time I actually made the strap first and tried attaching it immediately after forming the bag, without ANY felting whatsoever happening before, so I will absolutely stick to this in the future.

Pure Felting Bliss

So this is it. I am very happy of how it turned out! I will be decorating it probably with some flowers because it is for a little girl.

And I am really glad I can officially call my “strap struggles” a thing of the past!

Hope you enjoyed the video. Let me know if you have any questions!
Happy Felting! 😉