Carol Wiebe

Use a Book to Make Purse: Especially If You Don’t Like the Book

My friend Jan recently attended the One of a Kind Show in Toronto, where a mutual friend, Laurie Skantzos, has a booth displaying her paintings (see more on her website). Jan mentioned some purses made from book covers, which really piqued my curiosity.

Scribbit has a tutorial on how to make a purse out of a book. She retrieved the method from Shari Haab’s Designer Style Handbags: Techniques and Projects For Unique, and Elegant Designs From Classic to Retro. (Haab will NOT need an introductory section: it’s ALL in her title.)

Michelle Mitton, creator of Scribbit, is not shy about voicing her opinions:

I found irony in choosing Ulysees by James Joyce. First, because I think it’s highly tragic that it was chosen as the best book of the 20th century, second because it’s unintelligible and third because what is intelligible is junk.

BevsPaper has a lens on Squidoo about recycling books into purses, which includes a YouTube tutorial, places to buy purse handles, examples of book purses, other blog posts about the subject and a supply list.

Lois Wade wrote How to Make a Book Purse for wikiHow. Her method includes adding fabric covered cardboard inserts, which will make a sturdier purse than the previously mentioned sites. Sturdy also translates into holding its shape better, thus the purse will look more attractive.

Purses from books are clearly a TREND, (at least they were in 2008. Where have I been?), meaning many people make them from favorite books rather than damaged ones.

What I want to do, of course, is make a purse using my Cracked Paper Quilt method.

Carol Wiebe

Use a Book to Make Purse: Especially If You Don’t Like the Book

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