Making A Book Purse: No Sew Method

Sometimes a good short cut is just what you need. Super fast way to turn an old book into a handbag. The key to this short cut is finding a pre-made purse that fits your book. I have a bag full of old books in my car and when we hit thrift shops and estate sales, I know exactly what kind of purse I'm looking for. The purse has to be boxy and book shaped. I love it when they are an exact fit, but like the one below, sometimes close enough is just as good.

Here are the materials needed:

1) A book and a purse that match in size
2) Gorilla Glue (you can use other glues but this is my favorite)
3) An Exacto Knife

Step One:
The first thing you do is liberate the inside pages of the book by carefully cutting the book innards from the cover. Be careful not to cut the book cover, or yourself. I save the inside pages for other crafts. More on that later. 

Step Two: Dot the purse with Gorilla Glue, all over one side. Then quickly fit it into the book cover. Hold until the Gorilla Glue sets, 3-5 minutes to be safe. 

Step Three: Repeat Step Two and glue the other side of the purse to the other side of the book cover. I usually put other books on top until the glue sets. 

It's pretty easy, the only challenge is finding the purse that matches the book at the right price point. Library sales are a great place to find old books.

Here are two more purses I made this way. 

The inside of this book was destroyed, otherwise I would never have pulled it apart.

This inside of this one was also unreadable.