Leather Handbag With Wooden Sides

No power tools needed for this project ! I so adore those leather handbags with wooden sides so I tried to make one myself. I figured out how to add notches to the wooden sides for the bag handle. Please take a look at my video tutorial to see how it is done.

• 15 cm ( 4 pcs ) 1 cm thick plywood craft sticks
• 43.5 x 20 cm leather / pleather
• 1 screw on stud
• 1 leather / pleather handbag strap
• 16 nails ( 2 cm )
• wood glue, rubber glue, hammer, saw
• thread for sewing leather , blunt end needle

• When positioning the nails, make sure they won’t “bump” into each other. You’ll be nailing on the front , back, and bottom.
• Hammering nails onto the bottom is tricky. Get extra hands or if using a clamp to hold it up, make sure you protect the leather by wrapping it with some fabric.
• When punching the hole for the stud, if your hole punch is not large enough, just slowly punch out the circumference of the hole to widen it.

I think there are many ways to play with the design of this bag. You can make the sides wider, add multiple notches and lace the leather strap through, or change the shape of the front flap.

I hope you enjoy this DIY :)