Handmade Purse From Recycled Materials

In the past few years, an explosion of cute bags and purses have erupted into stores.  Everywhere I look, I see women carrying cute handbags and purses.  In fabric stores, there are oodles of purse and bag patterns hanging from racks.  Only on occasion do I use a purse and it's usually when I am dressed up to go somewhere special.  My wallet usually fits snuggly in my coat pocket for daily errands.  I am a minimalist and find extra bags a distraction for fear of setting it down and forgetting it, but I do want a nice purse for that special occasion.  Anyway, I decided to save some money and make my own customized purse.  I don't need a large one to carry everything including the kitchen sink (that's more of a diaper bag).  I just want something small to carry a wallet, cell phone, and comb.  Here is what I came up with:

Most of the purse was put together using recycled materials.  The main body of the purse came from an old wool sweater that had holes in the elbows.  To give the wool a little more shape, I sewed it to some dark cotton fabric leftover from a curtain project.  The flower centers are buttons that I retrieved from my button jar.  The buttons on the 3 small flowers came from an old pair of sandals I wore 10 years ago.  The flowers are made from recycled wool fabric from various items of used clothing.  Only the lining, magnetic clasp, and strap were purchased new at a local fabric store.  For extra touch, I added a small pocket inside to hold lip balm, wallet pictures, etc.  This project took about 4 hours to make.  I learned some new sewing skills in the process too!