One Skein Clutches

I decided to give felting a try. These are The Clutch You' ll Never Give Up from One Skein by Leigh Radford.
I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky Chocolate Souffle, Limeade and Victorian Pink, which my friend C brought back for me from the States. I used 2 strands of yarn instead of 1, with Takumi Clover Bamboo size 12 circular needles.
The first 2 photos were taken before my first learning experience with felting. I even added about 3 liters of boiling hot water to the washing machine, but it didn't really felt. Just got a little fuzzy is all. I was really disappointed, since I expected them to come out looking like this. So, I put the wet bags in a plastic bag with some dishwashing soap, and rubbed while watching TV in the middle of the night for about an hour or so each until about 2am. Directly rubbing it did make it felt a lot more than the washing machine. After rinsing out all the soap water and drying them out on a towel, this is where I am now, with the last photo. The knitted stitches are still very clearly visible. Next time, I will use more hot water and more soap, and more jeans for more agitation.

Meanwhile, my little cutie was very sweet and said the bags still look cute, even if they aren't felted the way Mommy intended them to be.
They are for G & L, 2 little daughters of our friends who will be moving to Tokyo soon. What should I fill the welcome-to-Tokyo bags with? Perhaps some Hello Kitty things? Or traditional Japanese origami? I will have fun planning and shopping until January!