As we so often scour the web for funky handbags and fantastic deals for you, the talented designers at PopLove-designs amaze us once again with their extraordinary handmade purse collection! With a special focus on messenger bags this season, their awesome style is funky, current and perfect for you girls when you’re out and about… I’ve selected a few for your viewing pleasure, so check these out – and don’t miss out on their amazing limited offers – get a groovy messenger bag TODAY! Have a look for yourselves…

This Unique Handmade Denim Messenger Bag is awesome! I love this funky, arty, screen-printed design on the front. You will definately stand out with this one-of-a-kind item – and it’s ideal for carrying all your bits and pieces around town, no matter what the weather, or how many bits and pieces you have!  Benefit from this one time offer NOW. Click the pic to discover more!

This Handmade ‘Claudia’ Denim Mesenger Bag is another extra-ordinary handmade purse from PopLove. Truly one of a kind – its stylish, its new-age, its eco-friendly and apart from that its amazingly functional! Even your unbrella can fit inside for those rainy days..and this material’s gonna last! Snap up this HOT offer NOW!

This ‘Building-Collage’ Denim Messenger Bag is a similar style but yet another unique, awesome, funked-out design. It’s bright, sparkly, stylish and resistant against bad days. So you’ll be happy wherever you go with this AMAZING creation. Get ready to get noticed, don’t miss out on PopLove’s best-ever offers Today!

And these were just a taste of PopLove’s handmade purse selection and quirky, stylish fashion items. Click on the pics above to see their other stuff, or check out the PopLove Designs website. If you decide not to, then you should be ashamed of your foolish behaviour!

More handmade purse-related tips, links, pics, and offers from us very soon. I’ll miss you. Bye x

Technorati Tags: funky handbags, hand made bags, handmade handbag, handmade purse

Deciding to go for a unique handmade purse instead of a mass-produced designer brand, is a smart move if you want to shine this season. But now that you’ve made the decision, how are you gonna choose that perfect handbag from the thousands on offer? If everyone has its own unique style, where do you even start!?

So lets start with the basics. Why do you want or need a purse? What are the fundamental criteria for buying a handbag, whether it be handmade or not? Here’s what you need to look out for…

1. It needs to have enough space for all those survival essentials for when you stay over at your boyfriends or are out aboout town for the whole day.

2. It must look spectacular at all times, no matter the weather conditions or time of day.

3. It must have some flexibility – preferably be soft and able to expand for chucking in shopping or your boyfriend’s hat and phone. But if it stretches, it needs to return to the original size.

4. It needs pockets so you can easily access all those essential day-to-day items like your mobile phone, make-up, travelcard, tissues, ipod, chewing gum etc etc.

5. Most of all, your handmade purse must look great, suit your style, flatter you and be versatile to compliment many different outfits.

But let’s face it, number 5 tends to be the overiding factor, am I right? Handbags these days are fashion accessories more than anything. So the next question arises…how do you pick a handmade purse that compliments your look?

An effective way to compliment your figure is by choosing a bag with the opposite shape. If you are smaller and curvy, then go for a bag that is long and sleek or rectangular shaped, like a clutch for instance. If you are tall and slender then try a smaller, rounded slouchy bag, like a hobo bag. The more rounded your body shape, the more your handmade purse should be structured and liniar, and visa versa. This hot tip will really help you pick a bag that flatters you.

Some common styles include the hobo bag, which is a crescent shaped shoulder bag, the messenger bag, which is rectangular with a long shoulder strap and is mostly worn across the body, the Tote, which is open-topped with handles, the Clutch, which can be a tiny hand held bag or slightly larger one tucked underneath the arm, the Cigar Box, which is very small and box-like and the Kelly Bag, wich owes its name to Grace Kelly and is big and structured. These are just a few of the many styles of handmade purse. The pics here show a few of these differing styles to give you some ideas. Personally, this funky messenger bag is one of my favourite styles to wear for the daytime and informal occasions. Isn’t it awesome!?

While its great to use the opposite effect when considering shape, size is a different matter. Your handmade handbag should be in proportion to your size. If your small and delicate, you’ll only look overwhelmed with a big bulky bag, and a tall girl will look lanky with a tiny purse. So here are a few tips. The design of the purse is up to you and your stylistic preferences. If you see a handmade purse you love, buy it! The other option is to get one custom made for you by one of the many talented designers around.

Technorati Tags: funky handbags, hand made bags, handmade handbag, handmade purse

1. Firstly, you need some kind of embroidery skill. If you know nothing about knitting, sowing or crocheting apart from having faint memories of your grandmother making woolly sweaters for the winter, then learn. Take up a sewing course or teach yourself using the web’s wealth of resourceful information. Of course if you can sew already, then making a handmade purse is gonna be a whole lot easier for you.

2. You can knit, sew, crochet, bead or fashion your handmade purse from new or old materials. One great method is to recycle fabrics from old clothes or materials you have lying around the house. This way you can get funky designs (from your x-clothes) on your handmade handbag without even struggling to create them yourself.

3. Decide what sized handmade purse you want; a small handbag with a handle; a larger messenger bag with a long shoulder strap, that will hang further down by your side or behind you; or anything larger like a back-pack style purse.

4. Pick a a style or theme for the bag. What kind of purses do you like – funky handbags? Sophisticated purses? Retro-style bags? If you have any special hobbies or loves – like animals for instance, then why not theme your handbag around that. Maybe you want to make a statement with the purse, supporting a certain charity or even challenging a particular political system or way of life. It’s completely up to you and is your time to channel all your creative energies. And have fun with it.

5. Think about using a template from a magazine, website or fabric store. It can really help you get everything in proportion. If you’ve seen any designs or images around that have really caught your attention, then why not include them on your handmade purse? Photograph the image, blow it up to the correct size using a scanner and printer or just a photocopier, and then take it to a print shop where they can advise you on size and color, and can print the image onto your finished handmade handbag.

6. If you like funky handbags and wanna spruce up the finished product, then try sewing on beads, badges, strips of colorful material and any other little crazy things you can find.

Technorati Tags: funky handbags, handmade handbag, handmade purse

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the online home of the handmade purse. We’ve created this site in aid of the ever-growing, handmade, handbag collection available to us all online today.

So where did the purse first originate?

The use of small purse-like functional bags stretches back throughout human history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, both men and women, wore pouch-like bags at their waists as handy carriers of ’stuff’. Even our original ancestors way back in the Stone Age would carry their primitive tools and ‘munchies’ in slings made from leaves or animal skins. This basic, primitive version of the handmade purse, if you could call it that, served purely for functional and practical purposes.

A big long leap down the line, into the 17th Century, these small practical tools started to become objects of style and fashion. In this period, girls were taught embroidery skills inorder to help them find and attract a husband. They used these aquired skills to stitch artwork onto their purses, which would in turn attract those dashing 17th Century men, who would ride in on their horses and whisk the ladies away into the sunset. Or that’s how I imagine it anyway. In reality it probably involved a lot more male chauvinism … and disease. Anyway, bags became more elaborate, eye-catching and beautiful.

This eventually led to the transformation of the purse into a stylish fashion accessory, which didn’t truly happen until the 20th Century. Along with the fast-moving fashion trends of this century came mass-production and mass-consumption. Popular designer brand companies like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes took over in the 1950s and still flourish to this day.

But as these global companies continue to dominate the market, and women everywhere walk around with the same bags or at least the same brand logos, a new string of talented small-time fashion designers have emerged. They have re-introduced the handmade purse. With it they have brought a movement in purse-fashion that emphasises originality, uniqueness and self-expression. Instead of expressing yourself through the repeated designs of mass-produced bags and by having the same brand name as everyone else, you can now express yourself through a unique, handmade purse that reflects your own personal choice of style, and therefore your personality.

The handmade purse allows us to be original and to be different.

So keep checking out the blog, to see the best, handmade, funky handbags online.

Technorati Tags: funky handbags, handmade handbag, handmade purse