Lined woven magazine handbag

[rackycoo]

 I was inspired by this post and tutorial:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=45643.0

to make this little purse:


It's clear mailing tape covered woven magazine pages. I covered each folded page with the tape before weaving them together.


Here's a picture of the lining, with the ever-important cell phone pocket. (If my phone's not in a pocket, I can never find it to answer it in time!) Sorry it's a little hard to see. The lining is black denim and doesn't seem to want to photograph too well. The handles came from Michaels.

I'm pretty happy with my new purse, and I think I know now what all my female relatives are getting for Christmas!

EDITED to add:

After several "science experiments" with all types of glue, I came to the sad conclusion that no glue would hold on the shiny tape surface. I ended up using "Oh So Sticky" double-sided tape to attach the lining to the inside of the bag. I have been carrying the bag around for a few weeks, and it still seems very secure. The handles are sewn to the lining, so the tape only has to hold the woven "shell" on. The lining is what's taking all the weight.

If you need to know where to get the tape, I got mine from at www.pennywisearts.c om. One roll is more than enough.

[3_Lips]

I like it  the black denim looks good and don't we all need a cell phone pocket lol

[justxlove]

wow.
thats amazing.
yours looks a lot better than mine.
mines the tote bag, if youve seen it.
but yea how did you make yours look so professional.
did you just choose like really good magazines.
what magazines did you use?
sorry if this is too many questions or whatever but im curious.
i think i want to redo my tote bag and make it look really good.
like yours.
so yea.
<3

[rackycoo]

I used a couple of Better Homes and Gardens magazines. Basically, I looked for pages that didn't have any white space on them. You know, where the color bleeds all the way out to the edge. I also tried for some interesting patterns. (Checkerboard floors, polka dotted material...anything that would look neat when all you see of it is a little square.) I tried to be kind of picky about what the colors of the page, what showed when I folded the page up, and which pages I actually used. I ended up rejecting a lot of pages once they were folded. I don't remember if you did yours this way, but I covered each individual strip with tape before weaving.

Then there's that lining...I wanted a little purse, and I really wasn't sure how to make the handles work, so I figured I needed some sort of lining to attach them to. Besides, the inside of the bag didn't look so hot!

I thought your tote bag was really good and looked well made. I liked all the pockets on the inside, and I was impressed that it was strong enough to hold so much weight. If you end up making another one, you should post it again! I am going to do another purse and try to fix some of the things I don't like so much about my first one.

[bees_knees]

I love this, how creative! What type of basic shapes/ pattern pieces did you cut for the shape of the bag?

[rackycoo]

I wove the bag in one piece. The front and back are each 7 strips high, with 2 strips for the bottom, so my beginning "mat" was 16 pieces tall. I placed all those strips down, and taped one end. I then wove in the 10 vertical strips. They weren't long enough, so I had to attach them together at the bottom. When I was done with this one big weaving, I folded one square's worth up from the 2 bottom strips, and one square's worth in on each end, to meet and form the sides. The only problem there was that the sides didn't fully meet, so I had to add a thin strip in between them. This is something I will definitely try to fix on my next try. It doesn't look bad, but I would be much happier with it if those sides met perfectly.

Does this answer your question at all?

[bees_knees]

Yes, thank you for sharing!!

[zitrone21]

Wow.  I think that's the best magazine bag I've seen.  The lining really makes it look professional.  I'm going to have to try one of these eventually; the magazines are piling up in my closet anyway and so far all I've been doing is making paper beads to hopefully make into bowls.  I've found Architectual Digest and Anthropologie catalogs work pretty well.  Lots of full color pages.

[SeW cUtE]

OMG AWESOME! What size is the purse? What are the dimensions?

[rackycoo]

The front is 9" by 7", and the sides and bottom are 2" deep. It's the perfect size for my large wallet, cellphone, and a pair of sunglasses. The smaller size helps me keep it neat! (Trash tends to accumulate at an alarming rate if I carry a large purse!)