Purse revamp: book it

I was visiting a cool gallery in Wisconsin last year, the FLYING PIG, and  found these "intellectual" purses. I "booked" a ride on this craft trip, and "read" up on sewing techniques. This project might "turn a page" on your recycling urges.

You'll need:
an old book, with a cloth cover (hunt them out in thrift shops, or even your own library)
glue gun
fabric
scissors
handles (bamboo or fabric or chain)
D rings or split rings (used for key rings)
needle and thread

Now this is my idea of how this might work...

This is the view from the front. As you can see the artist used an book with a cloth cover and then a added a bamboo handle attached to the book with metal rings.

I'm thinking they used wire or key rings to attach the handles to the bag. But we can use whatever we want, as far as handles.

If you pull out all the pages and left the cover you will get the base for this purse. You would have to use a glue gun and fabric to add to the inside of this purse.
Remember, if you mess up, it's only an old book. Use a less desirable one to practice on. Then graduate up to a vintage book with a cool title or color.

This is the end view of the purse. So all you creative peeps check it out and see how you can figure this out.  This is NOT for the novice, but perhaps for the creative, "let's give it a try" and see what I CAN do crafters.
I know the shape, when the purse is open is wider at the top, to allow you to get into the purse easier.

 I, myself, could not tell you how to do this, because I have not tried. But I'm dying to. So perhaps in a future blog, I may get this down to a science.

I totally adore the idea that you can take a cigar box, or book or whatever and make it into a purse/bag. Cuz I LOVE those.  I will be searching for fun stuff to make totes and fun stuff make bags in a way we didn't expect!!!!

tip of the day:

I picked up some great veggies at the grocery the other day. But I think I might have gotten tooooo many. So to keep them the freshest I can, I placed a couple of brand new sponges into the vegetable bin to absorb the excess moisture. Be sure to check these every couple of days, and wring them out. You'll be surprised to see how much moisture is absorbed by these that would have made your food soggy.

That's all for this week...
:D