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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a home design lover and mom of two, with one more on the way in January 2027. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, design tips, occasional sewing and crafty projects, and de-stressing goals.

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A practical recycling: purse handle!

Quite some time ago I got this Roxy purse at Goodwill Outlet:
I loved the colorful crochet flowers in cotton.  Out of it I made a pillow:
But I still had the handle left over.  I was leafing through my supplies the other day, and found the handle, and a good amount of sturdy black canvas.  I'm always looking for ways to make brown go with black, and I maintain that if one is the accent color then it totally works.  So, I used the brown fake leather handle on this bag I made!
I didn't use a pattern for the bag; just cut some rectangles and figured out the bottom as I went.  I'm pretty happy with it!  Although it was tough to sew through all the layers at the join from the top tabs to the metal rings from the handle.  All those layers really needed a strong denim needle, which I was glad to have!

What a fun recycled project these were--all for the $1.39 or so per pound I paid for the bag originally!

8 comments

  1. That pillow is lovely! It's so bright and cheerful!

    -Ponytails

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  2. Excellent idea! I love making bags, but I don't like having a fabric handle (it usually creases and just doesn't look as professional). Now next time I go to a thrift shop I'll look for cheap ugly purses with good handles and repurpose those!

    Thanks for the tip!

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Black and brown totally go together!! I hate it how people always say they don't...

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  5. Fantastic! Thanks for sharing. I love seeing all the things you make and reuse. It's very inspiring. :)

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  6. Anonymous11/30/2010

    Here's a hint: A walking foot makes it much easier to sew through lots of layers of fabric, the stitches are even and the fabric is more secure.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another thing to help with layers of heavy fabric is a leather needle. And why in the world did that beautiful purse have such a dark handle in the first place?

    ReplyDelete

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