For awhile now, I've been obsessing about finding a summer handbag that I could embellish with the cheap beads that I bought when I didn't know any better. I found a few crochet type bags that would've worked but didn't really like the styles enough to buy one. Yesterday while I was in a sewing machine store to pick up some stablizer that had been recommended for hand stitching, the sales lady and I got to talking about this, that, and the other.
When I mentioned my wish to embellish a purse and said that I didn't have a sewing machine to make one from scratch, she told me something that, imnsho, was absolutely brilliant!!!!
Get some place mats, tart 'em up, stitch 'em together, put on a handle and you've got yourself a purse or tote bag. She even volunteered to do the stitching!!!!