Parallel universe

Hubby firmly believes that women not only carry a toolbox, a tent for two and a medicine cabinet but a whole parallel universe in her purse. I cannot completely deny that and this is an excellent reason to dedicate this post to handbags and purses. But pay attention - it is heavy on pictures! 

Handbag madness started with pleated cosmetic pouches for the girls:

These nice little pyramid purses with snap hooks I distributed freely among family and friends. You could use them for coins, doggie treats, foldable shopping bags or the shopping cart deposit coin you need in Germany and many more - they are amazingly versatile.

When a co-worker, who also owned a dog, left the company, I sewed a walkie bag for her as parting gift. Inside there were two compartments for mobile and wallet, the flap had no complicated closure mechanism; the bag had a snap hook for a key ring, at the outer back there was a pocket for treats easily accessible to keep the fur kid from waiting too long for its treats, and finally an outer pocket with rubber band closure perfectly fitting for a roll of poop bags. And as you have to walk your dog even in grey and foggy weather I wanted vibrant colors for the bag. Not too large in size but not too small either to carry a rain jacket, gloves or a water bottle. Et voilà:

During Oktoberfest these little baggies come in quite handy:

Beauty exists in all shapes and sizes :-)

To avoid single-use plastic bags is a pretty good reason for sewing some cute shopping bags (please excuse my non-existent ironing of the last one): 

Concerning the next three pictures I only sewed the upper one at first and really liked how easy my machine handled the fabric. But even with its pretty dark red the shopper looked like a jute bag or like an ugly vintage version. As a quick fix I transformed it into a slightly larger pyramid pouch and a tasseled clutch. Much better!  

By the way: This is fake leather and it can look very elegant like this bucket bag and wallet in pearly pink:

After my experiments with artificial leather I turned to vegan leather which is offered by several manufacturers nowadays. For the most part it is made of paper and looks strikingly realistic. It is easy to handle if you know how. At first glance it feels stiff like cardboard but you have to wet the material and crumple it, then its leathery structure shows. If the project is too hard to handle (e.g. when turning inside out), just re-wet and it gives up its resistance. 

The following two bags were planned for travelling, which means I wanted a backpack that doesn't look overly sporty but elegant instead which I could also carry as shopper over my shoulder. To avoid always reaching behind my back to get to my mobile or my passport I wanted a matching small bag to carry only these small items. The results are this zippered backpack inspired by the ones with a rolled-up top, only I folded the top instead of rolling it. On the back I installed a relatively simple strap construction to switch between backpack and handbag. The small bag has the same strap, only in a smaller version, and both bags have matching tassles. 

By the way: You can't travel the world without a toiletry set :-) My personal set consists of a spacious toilet bag, a small cosmetic pouch and a brush roll which I think is pretty cute - girls' stuff, exactly.

All of these pouches and purses are quite adorable but with handbags you have to pay attention to keep them looking handmade, not homemade, if you know what I mean. Here is a good example for jeans recycling and I think you can wear it without worrying if it looks tinkered. I hope my sister thinks likewise :-)

And guess what's missing? Yes, a wallet! At first a very basic one with an open pocket for bills, a zipper pocket for coins and a pocket for the mobile. 

This one's a bit more complicated with two zipper pockets, an open pocket for bills and a huge amount of card pockets. I admit the lining is somehow distracting, but you get the picture… 

And now I declare the parallel universe closed :)