Everything Tote Hold

Also in totes:
L.L.Bean has a nice selection of totes. I hadn’t really considerered them since I assumed an L.L.Bean bag would be stuffy and dull, but now that I check out this page they have some cute stuff. I esp like the boardwalk market tote and is there anything with more fun potential then an adventure tote! and the classic boat and tote bag is actually pretty decent. I always want some sturdy that will stand the test of time, and i’m sure anything L.L.Bbean would do that.

also tote le monde was in this month’s real simple.

I used the bag for about a week, and really liked it. I was worried about the open top, but it wasn’t a problem. and there were side pockets to instert items i needed quickly. It was a little too big for daily use, but that ended up being an advantage since I could throw everything I there, like my lunch or the LBJ book I was reading.
But I’m not using the bag right now. Why? It was great but the bright blue seemed to spring-like, so I decided to put it away for 2 more months and it will be my official robins egg spring blue bag.

I discovered this bag on a very bad day of bag shopping. I had gone to a whole bunch of department stores and couldn’t find anything I liked. I was hungry and tired and cranky and just wanted to go home, but couldn’t stand the idea of having to use my current tired old bag again for another day. So I headed down to the end of Newbury Street to check out the bags at urban outfitters. I thought I had a good shot since I had seen a ton listed on the web site, but when I got there the bags looked cheap and flimsy in person. And the ones on the web site I really liked were nowhere to be found in the store. As I was leaving I just happened to walk by the Hold Everything store next door. There I saw this lovely tote. Perfect, simple easy, pretty, sturdy. I especially loved the color blue, a rich blue with a little purple. And the bag was $29, in my price range.

One recent bag that I have been very happy with is the basic canvas tote from Real Simple.

Baggallini

I’ve also seen Baggallini’s for sale at The Container Store.

And what to put all your plane goodies in? This cool bag from Baggallini. I had never heard of this conpany before Alex’s post, but a quick check on ebags shows that they have lots of other nice looking and functional bags.

Here’s some good bag/travel info from Alex’s cool travel site Anywhere Everywhere.
Alex posts some good travel tips with suggestions as to what to bring on the plane.

Bags Suede

Nevertheless, I do like the shape and design of BR’s suede zip pocket tote though I would only purchase one if it went way, way on sale.

Suede bags seem to be big this season. I see them all over Coach, Banana Republic, Gap and other places. I don’t think I like the idea. Suede is to high maintenence for me, gets dirty too quickly and can be ruined by the rain.

Bags Baby

Diaper bags sound like a good possibility, and I already saw a diaperbag at old navy that i liked.

A quick search at Babies R Us found some cute bags. There’s also some higher end baby bags over at Kate Spade.

Something to keep in mind. I am always trying to adapt my handbags to be camera bags as well and most can’t do the double duty. My camera ends up crammed and hard to reach, or takes up most of the room in the bag so I can’t find my wallet.

Today I stumbled over and interesting photo site: photoethnography.com with some amazingly detailed info on classic cameras, etc. what caught my attention was this note about a camera bag:

I’m a big fan of using diaper bags for my day bags. They’re cheap, capacious, have tons of pockets, have fold out changing sheets, and thieves seem to avoid them like the plague.

Garden Bag Kate Spade

REAL garden totes also look very useful for things other then gardening

And I love that it was inspired by a garden tote, an already useful and durable bag, and then modified to be a nice simple purse. I do wish it came in a larger size thougth.

Searching around the Kate Spade site I saw the new Garden Tote and instanly loved the colors. Esp the red handles.

Ideas Patterns

art of the midwest
easy tote bag with instructions
sqaure bottomed lined bag from sew wrong.
purses and handbags

…TONS! wow.
note to self, patterns for bags:
flapper girl fabrics
kwik sew bags I
kwik sew bags II

Around the net Bags Seen

Lovely simple Burberry tote with leather straps ($375!)

Makeup bag in full bloom

tote le monde jackson tote. love the outside pockets.

Lucky magazine has a ‘catch of the day” link for this big bag tote by a.p.c. Can you believe $139 for a simple cotton tote? Me neither. But I like the bag esp the simple denim color. Something to think about for when I start sewing my bags.

Hindmarch Anya

Her web site seems to be mostly about ordering a custom made photo bag, but some non-custom photo bags are on ebay like this one. I like how the photo is on all four sides of the bag

Also while surfing the forums at the Lucky magazine site I saw a mention of Anya Hindmarch bags, including be a bag. I really like the simple design of the bags and the original photos.

The Year in Purses Village Voice: Bag of Tricks

Is it just our imagination, or is the status of carrying a Louis Vuitton (vuitton.com) bag going down, down, down? A lot of people probably think this has to do with the glut of fakes on the market—a phenomenon we applaud—but we believe it is also due to the generic ambiance of the LV shops themselves, and the fungus-like way they are spreading all over the world.

How can you not appreciate an article that compares Louis Vuitton bags to spreading fungus? Not sure if I completly agree with that since I do have a soft spot for a crowded Canal Street shop full of fake bags. But anyway…

Wear Herve Chapelier and Wash

PS Now I’m begining to get the HC bug again. I am thinking maybe the small hanbag 901N, in the nicest brightest colors Ebay has to offer. That wouldn’t work for Boston in the winter, but since we will be down in Houston the colors should fit right in with the warm weather.

During the past few months I discovered it made an excellent airplane carry on bag. However dragging the light pink/tan bag through multiple airports resulted in a rather grungy bottom. I was able to do some touch ups with soap and a sponge, but it doesn’t look new. Until I remembered that the HC’s *in theory* can just be tossed in the laundry. Durning the summer I was too nervous to try that with my beautiful bag. But now that its older and not so important I am now willing to try out a washing.
Will report back here later this week with how the washing experiment worked out.

I ordered a Herve Chaplier bag in Perle/Tarama last summer off EBay. All in all it was good bag, heavy duty and roomy. I used it for much of the summer and then retired it.