When my friend saw online instructions for a project turning an old book cover into a purse and asked for my help I thought it was a fairly clever idea. We found some pretty book covers on hardbacks that weren’t worth much as books anymore, went to the craft store for glue, the fabric store for coordinating fabrics, and the Good Will for old purses whose handles we could cannibalize.

The project was fun, sticky and awkward. The first one we made was dubbed “worst purse in the world” by my friend. I had to liberally apply Mod Podge to get it to look okay. The second purse was more successful and has since been given as a wedding gift to a book-loving bride.

I wanted to include a link to a site where folks could get the pattern and directions for making such a thing. While I was googling sites I found one where somebody is making these same purses that my friend and I got glue all over the table for, and some of them are on sale for $135.00! I promise you we didn’t spend more than $5.00 on each of our purse projects.

The main difference is that Rebound Designs (see link below) is using really nice book covers. I mean, books you would really hate to see cut up and have stuff glued onto them.

http://www.rebound-designs.com/

I’m all for recycling, but this seems like a project for worthless but pretty books. And a do-it-yourself craft project would have to be pretty impressive to charge over a hundred bucks for it.

For instructions on how to turn an old book cover into a purse, see the following link. But please don’t cut up your old Nancy Drews before you find out if they are worth something as books!

DIY.com