Hand Crafted Bags and Purses

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Handmade Bags by Melted Rachel

For as long as I've been making textiles I've been making bags too. It's a little bit odd because I'm a rucksack-sort of gal. I need a huge bag so that I can lug around all my notes and books and whatever craft project I'm working on next.

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.

In this lens I show you how each of my projects starts with a really scrappy doodle. I then show you what those doodles become.

Some of the first Bags I Made 

Envelope-style clutches.

These are fairly easy to make because all your pattern pieces are rectangles.

Torquoise clutchSmoke TracesFading past

Little Squares 

These pieces are really simple bags to make. The fun comes from decorating them!

Pink Square Bag

Purple Floral Bag

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: (as of 12/21/2009)Buy Now

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.

Squares and rectangleswere easy but I wanted to start producing more-organic circular bags. These were some ofmy first attempts.

Pink circle

Round Bag

Fallen star

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

More info than you'll ever need!

Some of My Favourites 

Frills, bobbles and beads abound in these beauties!

Pink Ruffly bagPeanut

Crimson TundraSweet Dessert

White marble

Making Beautiful Beads 

Glass, metal, polymer clay and fiber.

Making Beautiful Beads: Glass * Metal * Polymer Clay * Fiber

Amazon Price: (as of 12/21/2009)Buy Now

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: (as of 12/21/2009)Buy Now

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.

Visit this link to find out more.

Handbags 

The Power of the Purse

Handbags: The Power of the Purse

Amazon Price: $10.04 (as of 12/21/2009)Buy Now

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!

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Check Out My E-Books... 

...on Lulu.com.

These books will teach you my techniques and how I create textures.

Coming soon- a book specifically detailing how to make the bags I make.

Melted Fabrics

Foundling

Melting and Felting

About Melted Rachel 

Textiles Artist and Purse Maker.

Lensmaster MeltedRachel has been a member since March 18 2009, has rated 813 lenses, favorited 465, and has created 122 lenses from scratch. This member's top-ranked page is "How to Make a Draft Excluder". See all my lenses

My Bio

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,
and figurines
which I embroider, layer, melt, and bead.

I also love felting, knitting, and spinning and I'm just getting into freeform crochet.

My Zimbio

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Melted Fabrics Merchandise... 

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Foundling Baby Greeting Cards (Pk of 10)

Ten Greetings cards featuring original artwork by Rachel Cox

Price: 16.99Buy Now

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: 10.99Buy Now

Foundling Baby 2.25" Button

Button featuring original textiles artwork by Rachel Cox

Price: 3.99Buy Now

Father and Child Mini Poster Print

Poster print featuring the work of textile artist Rachel Cox

Price: 5.99Buy Now

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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,... (more)

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