I’ve seen a lot of cute ideas for creating or embellishing purses, but this one might take the cake.  You can purchase the purse pictured here for a very reasonable $24 on etsy.  It’s offered on the site of a very talented crocheter – and I’m darn jealous!  Yellow is not my color – but the way she has embellished this purse with crochet motifs has gotten my mind all atwitter with ways I can use this in my own rather hefty purse collection.  I buy good leather purses and hate to part with them – sometimes using them far past the point when they should have been retired.

Apparently this purse was embellished with the colors of the Kansas State Jayhawks (my Mizzou graduate children object!!) but your favorite colors could be used to rescue a beat up purse or to totally change the look of a bag you no longer like.  I’m presently on a red bag kick.  I spent a lot of money on a wonderful crossbody bag that makes me smile every time I pick it up.  But, I ‘ve got a rather plain navy blue bag my very conservative husband gave me for Mother’s Day some years back.  I’ve never felt like using that bag.  But, with this inspiration, I’m thinking I can use some violet and chambray yarns to brighten up the bag and make it fit with my wardrobe a bit better than the navy does.

Since I’m an inveterate thrift store junkie, I know I can spend $3-6 for purses of a style and shape I like but that have seen better days when it comes to their battered leather or wicker or canvas or whatever.  My mom is a huge fan of metallics.  I’ve got a bunch of metallic size 10 thread.  Hmmmm.  I see a ‘new’ purse in my mom’s future……..

BTW, there are plenty of other lovely crochet projects by this same crochet artist.  This freeform purse is one of my faves!  Ya’ll know I’m a sucker for freeform, right?