Face-lifting the Perfect Purse

Last week, my Mother-in-law gave me the perfect used purse. I look for certain things in the "perfect" purse:

1. ONE strap. I hate purses that have two, one always falls off my shoulder!


2. A decent sized outside pocket. I have got to have a place to put my cell phone!


3. A decent size inside the purse. I don't need a tote bag, but it's nice to have room to find things. I'm trying to either carry a book, extra tissues (Winter), or sunscreen (Summer).


4. It must zip closed. I have cats in my house, they're always knocking stuff over.


5. This isn't a requirement, but a plus. A zipper pocket on the outside big enough to carry papers in. Even if I have to fold them in fourths to fit them. I carry some coupons on me at all times, and it doesn't help if I have to fish them out of the big compartment of the purse.

This purse fit each requirement, except that it was a little musty smelling and had a few spots that would not come off of the leather.

The smell is easily rectified with some baking soda overnight.

The outside of the purse, however, needed a face-lift. I found a blog describing almost exactly what I wanted to do: http://honestlywtf.com/diy/diy-decoupage-floral-bag/

I didn't follow that exactly, especially since I was using a striped ribbon, not cut out fabric. The ribbon posed a problem... or maybe it was my glue.

So, I started out with this:

The spots aren't that noticeable in the pic. And I had already started painting the front of the purse when I remembered to take pics!

Then I painted it using acrylic paint:

It took two coats of acrylic, plus a few spot treatments before it was completely painted.

I made my mod podge using Elmer's Glue, water, and fabric glue. I added the fabric glue to make it waterproof. I didn't use the special paint as directed in the tutorial posted above, so I wanted to make sure that the paint wouldn't come off in the rain.

I had a hard time getting the ribbon to stay on, maybe because it's thicker than fabric, or maybe it was because I added the fabric glue. That stuff gives me a hard time sometimes.

The next step was gluing the ribbon on, I put some on the front and some on the back. I had to babysit the ribbon, pressing it back on multiple times before it would stay.

I also glued over top of it just to make sure it would stay.

Lastly I put the glue over every part of the purse that I painted. This added some shine, but it also protects it, I hope.

The fabric glue takes a while to dry, so I hung it in the laundry room overnight.

This morning, I noticed a mistake:

Not sure you can see it under the glare, but I got newspaper stuck to the bottom. I hope I can get it off...

Finished... and not perfect, but still finished!

It's a little shiny, maybe next time I'll buy some actual Mod Podge and that special paint, huh?