Owl Handbag

I think it must be every lady's quest in life to find the ultimate handbag.  I find leather handbags too heavy so I have been meaning for many years to make myself the all time handbag but I can never find the right material that suits all my colour needs.

Lately, I have been in search of this elusive fabric and it has often struck me that the best fabrics are used for cushions.  I often see a cushion and think, hey, that would make a great handbag.  Well, this weekend I found this gorgeous owl cushion and I thought - YES, I'm going to make a handbag of that.  I had an old pair of pinstripe trousers that had become threadbare in places and I kept it for 8 years (!) with the intention of making a bag with it sometime. I realised that I could use it for lining, pockets and a strap.  So inside the Owl I added lining with a zip pocket and two open pockets for my Sony walkman and phone and added a zip at the top.  So here it is:

I absolutely love it.  I can see myself using it to death. I love the size and there are lots of colours to go with all my winter clothes.  It's a bit funky but I love having something different.

Think I am in search of another cushion to make a summer bag now!

Just Love Handbags

I just love fabric handbags and last week I was up in London and couldn’t resist popping into my favourite handbag shop in Covent Garden called Lollipops, a little French boutique shop, which has very reasonable but different handbags.

I have been looking for a little handbag that I can take with me on holiday that can store the bare essentials with the rest of my paraphernalia going into a backpack.  I ended up buying this lovely little bag which I realised at the time was a little impractical but I couldn’t resist:

The problem is that there is nowhere to really store a small fold up brush and a lipstick.  I can slip my mobile phone into one of the side pockets so that’s not too bad.  I can put the items in one of the sleeves at the back and the bag closes fine which is okay in the evening when I seldom open my bag but a nightmare during the day, if I am doing shopping and need to pay for items. 

So, decided to make a little bag that could attach to this main bag.  I dug out some fabric that I printed a while back and set out making this little bag:

 Well, it is proving to be highly successful!  It’s big enough to hold a passport and my boarding pass plus a fold-up brush and a lipstick so I have those in a convenient and accessible area.  When I am shopping, I can put my mobile phone in it so I can get to it quickly and when I am out sightseeing my camera fits into it beautifully and I am happy to put the rest of the items in my backpack.