The Great Handbag Dilemma

[ailbhe]

My handbag has a hole in it. I need another one. It needs space for my phone, my wallet which incorporates a filofax, my sunscreen, my antacids, and my keys. The one which has just died used to also contain a pack of pencils and a drawing pad, and a small toddler first aid kit.

*Ideally* it also should be small enough to fit into the nappy bag so that I only need to carry one bag around when that's what I'm doing.

I have stacks of bags. None of them appear suitable. The best sized one is multicoloured stripes but not waterproof and the colours will run as soon as anyone sicks up on it. The other favourite is blue denim, but the colours run and it has a small hole in it I fully intend to mend one day.

I want a small, bright bag with a few seperate pockets, waterproof, big enough for all my stuff including long enough for a biro, which doesn't weigh much, will wipe clean inside and out, and, preferably, has a link to a black hole somewhere for extra storage space.

Comments

[random-c.livejournal.com]

It should be fairly simple to molish something like this out of PVC. There's a place right by work which has PVC in lots of interesting colours. Give me some colours and measurements of the Things in needs to have in it, and I'll see what I can do. I have to sew *something* some time soon and I don't have the tuits to clear up and move the sewing machine that'd need to be moved to draft anything big.

[ailbhe]

Red and yellow and orange and bright blue and green and... rainbow colours, basically. Um, probably unwise to make most of it yellow.

Wallet: about 13cm x 11 cm x 5cm, full.

Phone: about 11cm x 5cm x 2.5cm incl aerial.

Assorted other gubbins, about as big as the wallet, I think.

You'll have to measure your own biro, because mine fell out of the hole in the bloody bag.

Er, what else? Strap! I need a strap about 150cm long, to go over my shoulder and across my body.

The dead handbag measures, externally, 20cm high x 15 cm wide x 10cm deep. The external pockets on it designed for biros were never big enough to actually get one *in*.

[random-c.livejournal.com]

Right, I'll have a think and a sketch and a fiddle tomorrow I expect, and get some fabric as soon as HSBC send my card back. I already have the right stuff for making adjustable straps, though it might not work wonderfully on PVC. You want the inside PVC as well, or cotton so it'll not be sticky?

[ailbhe]

If I can turn it inside out and rinse it, I think that's the main thing. Sticky?

[random-c.livejournal.com]

All PVC then. It can tend to stick to some things.

Nappy bag

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

You may have the same problem I did when i Had 2 children in nappies, in that my nappy bag suddenly wasn't big enough for 2 lots of nappies, snacks for Kate & a chnage of clothes for both. I was breastfeeding Holly, so I didn't have milk bottles, but I still couldn't fit it all in & ended up breaking the zip on my rucksack change bag as I could barely close it. Just by chance, I came across a giant nappy bag online from Little Company that was big enough & not a silly price. I now just use it when we go out for the day, like yesterday.

[random-c.livejournal.com]

Right, I've had a look in Borvicks at the PVC, and it looks suitable, £10.50/m. I shouldn't need even 1/2m of any colour, and I'm sure it'll come in handy for something. I'll have a think about how to make something with multiple pockets turn-inside-outable.