PJ Trader

To all of you, Dawson and I wish a safe and happy holiday season.

I know you’re just all waiting on the edge of your chair, eager to hear yet again about my new purse.  It’s been a week now that I’ve been test driving it, putting the bag through its paces during frantic Christmas shopping

 I’m loving it.

The PN purse slings over the shoulder comfortably and stays on the shoulder as well as any other long strapped bag.  Which is to say that it can and will fall off when it wants to, but not nearly as often as my other purse did.

While I can still lose things in it, that only seems to happen when I throw my wallet, phone, or memory card case in it instead of putting them back into their compartments.  That’s OK, though, because it only takes a few seconds to arrange them where they belong. 

I do have to watch it in the store where there’s lots of breakables on the same level as the bag.  Like any other heavily laden pack, it can wiggle its way into crannies it doesn’t belong.  But we haven’t had to pay for anything we’ve broken yet.

All in all, I’m very happy with the experiment.  I had thought to take it out and do some fancy covering on it, like decopauging fabric on it or something.  But I have other things to do now, and this is working out just fine. 

Welcome back to the continuing saga.  So goes the days of our lives…

Here’s the purse I have been carrying, pre-Nirvana:

The stuff:

The finished MYOBB before stuffing:

Now, put all the stuff in it, full on view

Looking to the left:

Looking to the right…

The dastardly duo:

Next up:  Test Driving the MYOBB

I wanted to combine the best of the Butler Bag with the Vera Bradley sling.  Those compartments to hold my wallet and iPod and pain reliever was just soooooo tempting. 

You remember I’d doing The Artist’s Way in an effort to boost my creative output?  I fear it may be leading me down the wrong path, because I felt the need for an art project.  Glue and paint and who knows what else would be involved.

So I made a stop at my local Michaels craft supply store.  I roamed the aisles, looking for something to turn into a little purse organizer.

The balsa wood looked like a possibility, so we grabbed a 3″ wide length of that.  Whatever it was I was looking for needed to be lightweight so it wouldn’t add weight to the bag.  I studied the jewelry making organizers, but they were too small.  I contemplated some small metal containers, but they were too big.  And then I found some paperboard boxes that were juuuust right.   And only $2 each.  I bought 4, the balsa wood (just in case), and a tiny can of spray paint.

Armed with the bag and art supplies, I got to work.

Supply List:

1 Vera Bradley Cargo Sling Bag

4- 3″W x 4 1/2″ L x 2 1/2″D paperboard boxes with lids (discard lids or save for another art project.  Maybe decoupage and use for coasters or something.)  (Note:  These are exceptionally sturdy boxes, not flimsy ones.)

1 strip 3″W x 36″L x 3/32″ thick balsa wood.

Clamps

Glue

Duct tape

Paint

1.  First, test your boxes inside your bag for fit.  (Picture 1)
Picture 1: Test boxes in bag

2.  Then glue the boxes together.  I used Gorilla Glue, which expands to fill in the seams where the boxes might not be completely square.  Clamps help keep things together.  I “borrowed” this from The Bob’s modeling supplies.

Picture 2: Glue the Boxes Together.

3.  Measure and cut three pieces of the balsa wood the width and height of the boxes to create a divider.  (Once again I borrowed The Bob’s modeling supplies for an Exacto knife and small saw.)

Picture 3: Measuring the balsa wood dividers

4.  I got a little stuck at this point trying to decide how to install the dividers in the middle of the box.  I chose to duct tape them in, with pieces of duct tape going on each edge for stability.  If I do this again, I’ll consider the use of power tools to cut a slot down three of the boxes so that I only have to cut one long piece of balsa wood and slide it into the slots.  Probably a little bit of glue and it would have been much easier than duct tape.  But the duct tape worked, so I’m not knocking success.

5.  Paint the boxes.  I used bright yellow mostly because it was the only color the store had that I liked in the baby spray paint can sizes.  I considered doing some decopauge, but decided to save that for later.

Total construction time:  2.5 hours, not including glue and paint drying time.

Tune in tomorrow to see the finished knock-off of the Butler Bag!