Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...The Book Purse.
Now, I imagine that tearing a book apart to use as a crafting material is barbaric and possibly criminal for many of you. I get it. But if you’ve ever visited a charity shop or neighborhood garage sale, you’ve likely come across books for sale...cheap. Libraries, schools, and households periodically weed their collections to free up valuable shelf space for new materials. Books that were once all the rage years ago may not be circulating. So, what can be done with all those books? Many of them will be sent to charity shops or sold at auctions. They may be found by a new reader, but far too many will end up in landfills or sent to pulping facilities. So why not repurpose them? From stacked book lamp bases to posh home interior decor, repurposed books are finding new purposes. The Book Purse is a great repurpose idea for well-reserved hardback “project” books. A project book isn’t of high literary standard, but it is clean, structurally sound, and of good size for the project in mind.
For the book purse project, I would need one book, canvas fabric, something to use as a handle, thin cardboard, something to use as a closure, craft glue, and crafting tools.
After looking through my craft closet and determining that I already had thin cardboard (an empty cereal box or similar), glue, tools, and a nice scrap of leather suitable for a purse closure, I was left with a relatively short list of still-needed supplies.
*book
*purse handles
*liner
With the list in hand, I headed straight to the nearest charity shop. I found a colorful remnant of canvas fabric that would look great as a purse lining. Serendipitously, I also found a cotton-woven belt and a “project book” that matched perfectly and coordinated well with the canvas fabric. The book is a large hardback, 9.5” tall x 6.5” wide x 2” thick. This would make a nice-sized pocketbook.
Next, I gathered the tools to assemble my book purse.
*Scissors
*Craft cutter
*Ruler
*Rotary cutter
*Leather hole-punch
*rivets (I keep mine stored in old prescription bottles.) I wanted to use rivets to attach my handles to this purse, but there are more straightforward options, which I’ll address later in this article.
*Cutting mat
*BBQ lighter (used to seal the ends of the woven belt so it won’t fray.)
With supplies gathered, it was time to get started!
Here are the directions for making your own book purse:
Remove the book block from the cover. Carefully cut the front and back end pages where the book block meets the cover. Be careful not to cut too deeply; you’ll risk cutting right through the book cover or spine.
Gently pull the book block away from the spine.
Keep the book block for other projects!
Remove any hardware from the woven belt.
Cut the strap in half.
Carefully burn all raw ends to prevent raveling.
There are many other handle options. Pre-made purse handles in various styles are readily available in craft stores and online. You can also skip the handles and turn your purse into a clutch!
Undo the glued seams on your cereal box, or flatten your thin cardboard.
Cut the cardboard to a tad smaller than the size of your opened book cover.
Score, DON’T CUT, a fold line where the cardboard meets the folds in the book cover.
Place the cardboard on the canvas fabric, taking care to center the feature, pattern, or print.
Trim around the cardboard, leaving about one inch of excess all around.
Iron all the wrinkles out.
Apply a generous amount of good-quality craft tacky glue to the clean side of your cardboard insert.
Lay the fabric on top of the cardboard.
Flip your project over. On the back side, fold over all excess fabric and glue it to the cardboard. Miter the corners and glue all fabric layers down.
Don’t worry if a bit of the glue seeps through the fabric. Once it is completely dry, it will not show.
Your fabric insert is complete.
Fold another piece of fabric in half to create a double thickness. Stand your book cover in an open position (the distance you want your purse to open), with the top of your cover aligned to the folded edge of the fabric.
Mark the fabric about 3/4” to an inch from the book cover and spine (bottom of your book purse).
Using your straight edge, draw cut lines and cut them neatly.
You should end up with a trapezoid shape of double fabric.
Cut a second trapezoid using the first as a template.
Double-check that both pieces are double-thick and have a fold line on the longer side.
Stand the book cover on the trapezoid. You should have at least 3/4” to 1 inch extra fabric around both sides and the bottom. Now, draw a line on your fabric where the book cover hinges to create a notch.
Cut along the trim lines to create a notch. This will ensure the fabric side “wings” aren’t too bunched at the book hinge.
Open the book cover until it lies flat. Apply a liberal amount of tacky craft glue to both ends of the book spine.
Attach the book’s side wing to the book spine. You may need to add more glue between the two layers of your side wings.
Carefully lift up the edge of the fabric side wing and glue it in place. Again, because the fabric is doubled, you may need to add glue between the fabric layers.
It helps to rest the book cover on something while you manipulate it into place and let it dry.
Now, repeat with the other side of the book cover. Here, you’ll see one book cover side resting on a ceramic jar of colored pencils while the other rests on my belly!
A small triangular shape of fabric wing may stick up beyond the book cover. No worries. We’ll fold that in when we attach the cardboard/fabric insert.
Attach your closure at this time. I chose to attach 1-1/2-inch strips of scrap leather to each book cover side, ensuring they aligned. I used rivets, but tacky craft glue works as well.
Once the side wings are completely dry, liberally put glue on both book cover sides and along the inside edges of the side wings.
If you have a slight triangular excess from your side wings, simply fold them inside the purse frame and glue them.
Slip your fabric/cardboard insert inside. Position it properly
Allow to dry.
I like to place the original book block inside to hold everything in place while the glue dries. Before you do this, just ensure no glue seeps through your fabric.
After much drying, your book purse is ready to use!
All photos by Paulette Rodriguez
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