I would like to make handbags for the ladies in my family for Christmas this year. Does anyone know of any good instructions on the web? Ideally, I'd like some with pictures. I would appreciate any of your tips and tricks as well! :) Thanks.

I'm not all that good at sewing, but I took a rectangular piece of super furry pink fabric, folded it in half like I was going to make a pillow, left the top open with fabric to over lap the bottom half. I used velcro to close the purse, and it turned out really cute! So my advice is to make it as simple as possible, and if you want it fancier, use fancier fabric, or add trim or something.

adding onto the above directions...to make a bag that can hold more stuff, you can make a box bottom pretty easily.

with the bag inside out, put the side seam and the bottom seam (or what would be the bottom seam) together. sew it so that there is a little triangle. do this on the other side, and you have a bag that has more space. it does make the bag a bit shorter, but you can accomodate for this pretty easily. make sure you trim off the triangle pieces when you are happy with it.

you can do the same thing with some light weight fabric of the same size and use it as a liner. simply hem the top of it, and sew it to the inside of the bag. linings make things look more professional, and keeps the bag from unraveling.

if you are more visual, look at some patterns in the pattern store. if you find a style you like, look at the cutting layout for it, and copy the piece designs.

If you can knit, knitting purses is one of the quicker knitted gifts to make. I am making one now, that i plan to felt when i am done knitting it. And, i finally will have an excuse to go out and get the grommet thingy. I was at the yarn shop last night, and they had a felted purse for sale, and instead of knitted handles, they used grommets, and ran a long length of ball-chain through the holes. it looked great! I don't know if i will use ball chain or not, but there are so many possibilities this way.

Since purses are not very big, they take little time to knit, and all you have to be able to make is a scarf. Just make a short length of scarf, fold over, sew, add a handle. You can knit crochet a long or short strap, or attach old purse handles. All kinds of stuff.

--nat