My friend Mell has never been much of a purse person. She keeps her phone,  keys, ID and money all in one place: her bra. I’m jealous she can get away with it. Anything extra in my bra sticks out like an obvious rectangle in a tiny bra.

Anyway, she recently decided she wanted to start carrying a purse around, for water bottles, books, and other things she needs that don’t fit “up there.” She didn’t want something huge, and she didn’t want to pay a bunch, so for her birthday, which was right after thanksgiving, I decided to make her a duct tape purse. I wanted to do something personal, and she’s always liked duct tape wallets, so I looked up patterns and tutorials. Since her favorite color is green, I thought a green-and-black checkered pattern would be the way to go. It turned out great!

 I used this tutorial– and it worked pretty well. The instructions for making the sides confused me, but I eventually made it work. The hardest thing for me was folding the strips of duct tape in half. They kept crinkling up on each other. I decided to try a method I’ve seen before, for wallets. I laid two long strips of duct tape on top of each other, then cute them in half so I had the width I wanted. This was much easier for me and turned out less crinkly and wrinkled.

It took me probably 4 or 5 hours to complete it. I made the main sheet one night, then dealt with the sides a couple days later. (They were frustrating me, I needed a break.) The whole time I was making it, I thought: “I keep messing up, there are wrinkles everywhere, this is going to look like shit.” But it turned out pretty good! There are a couple places my spacing wasn’t even, and you can see some gaps, but overall, it’s a pretty purse, and Mell’s gotten a lot of compliments on it!

Time will tell how it stands up, but I reinforced the inside and bottom a bunch, and I made the strap run the whole way across the bottom, and then secured it with more duct tape.

The only part that isn’t duct tape is the small piece of Velcro I used to keep the flap down. Michael suggested that a chain or rope handle might look cooler, but I like how it turned out, and we can always switch out the handle for something else if Mell decides she wants a change.

Anyway, just thought I’d share the craftiness!