Hand Crafted Bags and Purses
Ranked #5,821 in Arts & Design, #89,791 overall
Handmade Bags by Melted Rachel
But I love cute bags! I love pink and frills and sequins.
This is a collection of some of my favourite bags, the early bags I made and how I've resolved my rucksack vs. pink filly purse issue.
Check out my one of a kind handmade bags at Rachel's Melted Fabrics
Doodles for Early Bags
A few of my first ideas c.2003!
Melted Doodles
Find out more about my doodles in the lens below.
Some of the first Bags I Made
Envelope-style clutches.
Little Squares
These pieces are really simple bags to make. The fun comes from decorating them!
Pendant Pocket Purse
Keep your valuables safe with this design!
This is an early bag of mine- made around 2003.Learn how to make it from "Making Handbags and Purses" by Carol Parks featured below.
This bag is a really cute idea for keeping all your valuables safe. You have a cover that slips over the inner pouch and you can only get to the pouch by sliding the cover up the strings- not easy for a pickpocket to do without you noticing.
The best part of this bag design (for me at least!) is that technically you have too bags to cover with beautiful decoration.
Here I've chosen an autumn leaves theme. In Carol Parks's book a rabbit and turnip theme is use.
Making Handbags & Purses
50 Patterns & Designs from Casual to Corporate.
Making Handbags & Purses: 50 Patterns & Designs from Casual to Corporate
Amazon Price: $8.50 (as of 02/12/2012)
I own this book- it's where I got the idea for the pouch purse from.
There are some really cute and unusual purse designs in here- a great place to start if you want to work from a pattern.
Circular
Round bags.
Winter Roses
My favourite circular bag.
I love how the red fabric melted in this piece to reveal the white underneath.
My Bag
Big enough for a sketchbook but feminine enough for sequins.
This is my bag. I needed a bag big enough to cart around all the junk I like to take everywhere- my A4 diary, a couple of paperbacks, my camera and all the usual keys, wallets etc- but i also wanted something pretty too.This bag has taken a lot of punishment over the years but is still going strong! I believe I made it in 2006.
I made it from 2 rectangles of melted fabrics and one long strip to make the width. The zips at the closure were salvaged from an old pair of jeans and I made simple straps out of 2 tubes of sturdy material
A little about me
Rachel of Melted Fabrics.
My name's Rachel Cox and I'm a textiles artist from the UK.I make wall hangings, bags, purses and figurines from layered, embroidered and melted textiles.
As you can see from the image opposite I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of woman but this doesn't stop me from making some of the girliest bags and purses ever.
Want to Know More About Me?
All about Melted Rachel
Some of My Favourites
Frills, bobbles and beads abound in these beauties!
Making Beautiful Beads
Glass, metal, polymer clay and fiber.
Making Beautiful Beads: Glass * Metal * Polymer Clay * Fiber
Amazon Price: $7.44 (as of 02/12/2012)
This is another of the craft books that I like to flick through.
I use this book as inspiration to make beads to decorate my bags and also for inspiration. Some of my bags are based on beads featured in this book.
Bobble Bag Doodles
As you can see, I'm fond of bobbly bits on bags.
Green Bobble Bag
One of the first purses I made with a purse frame.
Decent purse frames are hard to get hold of but they look so adorable on highly decorated jewel-like purses.
I made the handle for this bag from handmade bobbly beads- clay beads with glued strings of seed (or rocaille) beads.
The Bead Maker
Recipes for creating hand-crafted beads.
The Bead Maker
Amazon Price: $3.50 (as of 02/12/2012)
This is the book I used to create the beads for the Green Bobble Bag handle.
Mitochondria Purse
Just enough room for a ten dollar note!
This has to be one of my most bizarre bags. It's based on an image of a mitochondria cell.
I started by making a wire frame and then I covered the frame with my textiles piece, made a lining and then covered the whole thing with soldered organza, beads and sequins.
Melted Cells
A lot of my early textiles and bags are based on cell structures.
Handbags
The Power of the Purse
Handbags: The Power of the Purse
Amazon Price: $5.90 (as of 02/12/2012)
This is a great book packed with odd little purses- some of the handbags featured are ancient.
If I ever run out of ideas (which isn't very often) I just have a quick flick through this book.
The Power of the Purse is a must for any bag obsessed people out there!
Blue Iris
Can you guess what I used for the structure of this bag?
The handle is made from a fabulous necklace a friend found for me at a charity shop!
Find Out More about my Textiles
Check out the lens below to find out about all the e-books I've written about textiles techniques.
Love This Melted Fabrics Lens?
Please rate me.
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Share Your Thoughts
Reader Feedback.
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TrainYourDogHere
May 7, 2011 @ 1:53 am | delete
- Fantastic ideas. My head is buzzing with possibilities! 80))
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MeltedRachel
May 10, 2011 @ 12:01 pm | delete
- Thanks for visiting :D
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WildFacesGallery
Dec 21, 2010 @ 10:46 am | delete
- Okay these are stunning!!! I'm not even a girly girl and I love them. I might never ever use one but I bet I'd just enjoy it for it's beauty. You know pull it out and pet it from time to time. :)
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MeltedRachel
Dec 25, 2010 @ 5:47 pm | delete
- I'm not a girly girl either! Thanks so much for visiting :D
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Heather426
Dec 13, 2010 @ 1:24 am | delete
- Love your stuff, all of it, but the bags are very nice!
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About Melted Rachel
Textiles Artist and Purse Maker.
Melted Fabrics Merchandise...
...on Cafepress.
Foundling Baby Greeting Cards (Pk of 10)
Ten Greetings cards featuring original artwork by Rachel Cox
Price:
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Three Little Fishes Infant Creeper
Three cute little Fishes swim in a pool of bubbles on this infant creeper featuring original artwork by Rachel Cox
Price:
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Foundling Baby 2.25" Button
Button featuring original textiles artwork by Rachel Cox
Price:
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Father and Child Mini Poster Print
Poster print featuring the work of textile artist Rachel Cox
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Bluebirds and Baby Small Framed Print
A framed print featuring the work of textiles artist Rachel Cox
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by MeltedRachel
I'm Rachel, a textiles artist from the southwest of England.
I love using recycled materials to create one-of-a-kind:
textiles art pieces,
handbags,...
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