Progress on the Fundraiser Basket, and some random dishcloths.

As you know, my mother in law asked me to put together a basket of items for a silent auction fundraiser.  Here is the progress on the basket items.

Do you ever make projects multiple times?  I do.  And usually, the first time through is kind of a prototype.  Subsequent times, I usually make a few changes.  Improvements, if you will.  This is unfortunate for the person that received the first attempt, but a plus for people later on.  Rita asked me to do a felted purse set, like the one I made her for Mother's Day, and neglected to take pictures of.  I did, but made a few improvements to the originals.  Here are the items before felting.

On the left is an eyeglass case.  A few days earlier, I had played around with some dishcloth yarn and learned an entrelac variation called garterlac.  I know this is like a foreign language from some of you, but entrelac is where you first knit a row of triangles (the light blue in the picture).  You rotate your work and pick up stitches along the sides and knit squares (the dark blue), then rotate again for the next row.  I decided to try it in a felted project, and the eyeglass case fit the bill. 

Next to that is a cell phone case, playing with some stranted color work.  The bottom shows a key finder, that attaches around your purse strap.  Your keys clip onto the ring at the bottom, so you can easily fish them up from the depths of your bag.  A clip will be included, but isn't shown in this picture.

On the right is a rectangle destined to be a small purse.  On the 2 previous versions, I had done a simple single crochet edge around the outside, then folded and stitched the purse together before felting.  I cut a button hole and stitched on a button, and called it done.  And it was, technically.  But I thought I could change that a little.  For this version, I simply felted the rectangle, and would finish it later.

Here are the felted pieces:

Cell phone holder, purse, eyeglass case, and key finder.  I really like how they came out, and hope that Rita will too.  But here are the changes on the purse.  On the other version, the seam was on the outside.  The whole thing was kind of loose and floppy, and the way the flap was, you couldn't really put anything small in there, for fear of it falling out.  This time, with the fabric inside out, I sewed the side seams, then turned it inside out.  Then, with a little trial and error (I'm not a sewer!), I achieved this:

This purse is fully lined, with a zipper closure.  There is a snap to keep the flap down, with a decorative button on the front.  I really like how the whole set came out, and hope Rita likes it too!

Still to come, the tea cozy, while finished.  I need to wash the teapot before I "dress" it and take pictures.  I have one slipper left to finish, and some soaps.  Then, I can assemble and show you the finished project.