What you need is soap, friction, hot water, and lots of rubbing!

Morning all, what a fun afternoon we had yesterday.  Can you guess from the title what we were up to?
Innuendos were flying in all directions as we got hot, wet and soapy!
Then of course there was the rubbing, massaging and rolling!
Who would have known that crafting could give you such a work out?!
All this with copious amounts of bubble wrap too.  Sounds kinky?
You are only getting the half of it today.  ;)
What a laugh and we had but such a fitness session too.

Why, yesterday I entered the world of wet felting.
I have fancied giving this a go for a long time.
In a nutshell......Wet felting is a process used to make wool and other animal fibres into the dense fabric known as felt. The process involves the application of warm, soapy water, which causes layers of fleece placed at 90 degree angles to one another to hook together into a single piece of fabric. After the wet felting process is complete, the felted project is finished by agitating the fibres on a rough surface such as a washboard. The felted fabric can then be dried and used to make accessories or garments.

The lovely Helen in our craft group made a beautiful handbag recently at a crop and we were all intrigued as to how she made it and the finished article was just fabulous.  Now she had two options.....to show us how to make one ourselves or to make a job lot of them for us all.  Happily Helen is a good sport and decided to show us how it is done, many thanks for all your hard work.  x
So how do you learn to felt?  Start small with a flower maybe?  Not us, straight in there with a bag, flower and handles....in at the deep end is sometimes the best way to learn!

The class in progress....

We layered the felt over our bag shape first working horizontally then vertically, then we added hot water and soap.

Here is Haley laying out her felt.

Irene has wet and soaped her felt and is covering with bubble wrap getting ready to massage the fibres.  What a work out this turned out to be!  Rub, rub, soap, soap, massage, massage!

One side done it needed to be turned over and repeated on the other side.  Massage, massage...rub, rub!

Then we had the handles and poppy to make.

Tina and Roz rolling their handles.....what else could they be rolling?!

Even the "old bingo wings" got a good work out yesterday, I was fairly worn out once I got home. 
My bag is now stuffed with towels to shape and drying out.  I can't wait to use it.  
Want to see it?

What was lovely, all of us used the same pattern, the same process and the same colours but every single bag was different.  

We did giggle throughout the process as Helen's bags are just perfect and we had a few ups and downs along the way, getting there in the end.  

I had my fingers crossed it wasn't a case of looking at something on Pinterest and thinking I'm going to do that, then posting your picture of the finished project, looking nothing like the original, with the title, "Well, I nailed that!"  :D

I love those type of photographs, real life ain't perfect!  

Anyway just to show you the contrast here is the lovely bag by Helen.  

Not too different?  
Mine will alter a little more as it drys fully but you get the general idea.  
I am quite chuffed for my first attempt and I think I will go back and make more....can you guess the colour of my next one?
My big thanks to Helen and all the girls for such a fun, informative and interesting afternoon crafting.
You guys are the best!  x

That's all from me today, I think I have just about dried out after my early morning walk with the dog.  I have a mountain of ironing and housework to catch up on after being away and I am also working a couple of extra shifts this week so I better make a move.  Enjoy your Monday.  x