Use Purse Handles for Display

 Hello Readers. Is that a weird title? It probably is, but stay with me. I had these adorable embroidered dish towels. I believe my great grandmother made them. I am not going to hang them on my oven. I have kids and these heirlooms will be used to wipe up chocolate milk off the floor before I can stop it. I want to display them in a "safe" place and in a pretty way. Let me show you what I did. 

I want to display my special things, of course, but without damaging them. 

 I believe my great Grandma made these about 75 years ago. (I can't verify that.) I love them. They are so adorable. 

 These towels are special to me but any towel could be displayed like this, just for fun. Even a modern store bought sassy towel like this. It would be cute hung-up in a bathroom or powder room. You could even display a beautiful scarf in the bedroom using this idea. 

I looked all around my house for a way to hang these towels. I have lots of crafty stuff in my sewing room. I went through my drawers of supplies. I must have something somewhere I could use. Like these handles meant for bag making. 

  I had these bamboo purse handles and these black plastic purse handles as well. Which would be better? I think I can make either set work. That's great, it's nice to have options. I wanted to hang the towels in the kitchen but not in a spot my family would think these were towels to use for everyday. I think the little spot on the wall will work nicely. Its on the opposite wall from the sink so no one will walk all the way over here from the sink to dry their hands.  

I measured to find the center of the wall and marked where that would be for my nail holes. These towels are light and won't pull on the nail like something heavy would. I am also not taking them off and hanging them again like a much used dish towel. Small nails will be fine here. 

 I put the nail in the upper spot first. I just tapped with a hammer and it was done. I based the height of the towels on how high I could reach. I didn't over-think it. I just wanted to display my great-grandma's towels at close to eye level. There were two towels so that was easy. 

 Now I can try the different handles on the wall to hold the towels to see what looked best. What do you think of the bamboo? It is light in color so that might be a good choice.  

 The black handles are darker and might be too dark for some kitchens. I really like how it looked with the black stitching.

I actually used these handles upside-down. To keep the towel on the black handle I tied some narrow cord from one end of the handle to the other. The cord won't show under the towel so, shhh, don't tell anyone.  

 Which handle would you choose? I chose the black and I love how they turned out. The handles are not altered or damaged so they can still be used to make a bag or purse someday if I ever want to. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.  

 

Replacing a Purse Handle

 Hello Readers. Sometimes the items we purchase don't last as long as we would like. These purse handles were literally falling apart. It wasn't hard to replace them with something better. Let me show you how easy it was. 

Before and after.

I found this bag at a thrift store and I loved the red and purple fabric. But the handles of this bag were a terrible mess. The vinyl was peeling off and looked awful. The circular handles slid around in the casing they were in so I knew I could replace the handles. 

You can see how bad the handles were here. I grabbed my craft scissors. I cut the handles. They were not difficult to cut through. 

I was able to slide the cut handle out of the bag easily.

I had these kind of circular bamboo handles in my sewing stash. My mother-in-law gave them to me but you can find them at the fabric store and on Amazon.

 

I see these kind of handles at the thrift store sometimes too. You can buy the purse and use the handles with a different bag. It would be cheaper to buy this thrift bag and cut away the bag so you can use these handles instead of buying the handles new at a fabric store.
 

I know you are thinking about how I got the closed circular handles into the casing of the bag. It wasn't a magic trick, I cut them. I used a small saw to cut an opening in the handles. The bamboo is light and porous, it's very easy to saw through. 

When I cut the bamboo handles they opened up like this. That was just what I needed to slip them into the casing of the bag. 

I took one of the cut ends, it doesn't matter which one. 

I slid the cut end into the casing. It slid right in. 

I kept sliding the bamboo handle into the casing and ...

The cut end came out of the other side of the casing. 

I kept the cut ends of the handles inside the casing so they did not show. 

The new handles looked great. 

I decided to glue the cut ends of the bamboo handles back together to reinforce the spot where I cut them. The cut ends don't show but I wanted the handles to be as strong as possible. 

I CAREFULLY added a small blob of hot glue to the handle. I put the HOT glue right in the opening. 

I CAREFULLY pushed the cut ends together and held them together while they cooled and dried. This took a few minutes. (Glue guns can burn you. Use caution.)

When my glue was cooled down and set in place, I slid the handle into the casing again to hide that glued spot. Hot glue isn't cute so lets hide it. 

The bag looks great with new handles.

 

  No one but you and I will ever know how bad it looked before. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update***- I love red and this purse was so easy to fix.