My mother's felted purse

Here's the before picture. It was 20 inches high before felting. It is made with Knit Picks (big surprise) Merino Style in "Iris" and "Vanilla". It is Number 3 from Bags: A Knitter's Dozen.
And here's the after picture, now a mere 13 inches high.

For felting, I threw it in a pillowcase, tossed it in the washer along with a couple of tennis shoes (thanks to Nancy for suggesting those!), a little bit of detergent and I started up the wash on hot. It took about 10 minutes of agitation. I probably could have felted it a bit more (it's still huge), but this was my first felting experience and it was so lovely that I was afraid of pressing my luck. So, I laid it flat and left it for about four days. Okay, to be honest, I kept checking it and turning the fan on it so maybe it would dry just a little faster, but it really took forever!