Remember the bookbags you carried back in elementary school? If you were lucky, Mom took you back-to-school shopping for slacks, shoes and a new bookbag to hold all those textbooks. I can’t remember what my last bag looked like. But when I started playing around with discarded textbooks, I knew what my next bookbag could look like.
Long before I bought shoulder bags made from a Guatemalan coffee sack and knitted plastic grocery bags, and way before upcycling or DIY were terms I’d actually heard of, I started making book purses.
Happy to report there are several, new-to-me book purses in production. Here are a few from the archives.

Adventures for Readers Book 1 bag, 2006.
Khaki web belt for the straps, liner is an old pair of cargo parachute pants, toggles included.

Oui je parle Francais! book bag, 2006
Cotton linen dress for liner, ribbon and button closure, cotton belt for handles.

Reader’s Digest Condensed Book purse, 2010
Sassy blue jeans liner, Dad’s casual friday belt for handles, lone star rivets.



Pie’s kitchen, Christmas 2012. Photo by Barry Long.
Top, To Kill a Mockingbird book bag with dust jacket, 2010. Belt and liner from vintage secretary’s skirt.
Adventures for Readers Book 1 bag, 2006, bottom.

Hanging out in the McIntire Book Bin, photo by John Robinson, Summer 2011, http://www.robinsonimagery.com/. Improving Your Health book bag, leather handles.

Terri and Karen, Charlottesville City Market, Summer 2007.
Green book bag with green belt handles.