Handbag for the Wife

[Reegesc]

One thing that is cool about the Kelly Bag (other than the extreme state of disbelief it elicits every time you see a price tag on one) is its name   ---   "<Insert Name> Bag".  In this case it was my wife's birthday present and thus it's a "Suzy Bag".  She'll never use it though and I knew that before making it. Too formal for her...I don't know what you call my wife's tastes.   You would think that after 30 years of marriage I would have a handle on it.  NOPE.    I gave up a long time ago surprising her with handmade gifts and instead surprise myself with the occasional success on something that at first looks very difficult and then pass it off as a present.   I don't care if she doesn't use it since all I'm going for is "It looks great!" anyway.   Yes she would say that (and does) even if it doesn't look great.  I have a cool wife.

So it turns out that the hardest part of making a "Suzy Bag" is finding the hardware!  Man, for a bag that is the envy of every newly rich Chinese female on the planet and is in such high demand that it has a robust and brazen online  replica industry  you would think that it would be so ubiquitous you could pick up a set at WalMart any time you felt like it including 4 am while pulling the all nighter, just hours before the deadline.   FAT CHANCE!  I searched every swinging bag hardware vendor I could find.  NADA.  I even contacted all 15 online counterfeit vendors to see if  they would help a brutha out. They saw right through my birthday sob story.  Why didn't I also ask them for counterfeit goods selling tips  while I was it?   Take a hike pal.   If you're not in a hurry and the type that plans ahead, there's a sketchy Chinese vendor. I ordered a set because even though it's on the other side of the planet and the only shipping option is free China Post, well you order it regardless if it never shows up because it feels like  you're moving the project forward and you've got someone to blame if it doesn't work out.  You win either way.     If you're lucky you'll find a one-off listing on ETSY.  I got lucky and snagged the only one available  in the finish I didn't want and from a vendor I actually begged to ship it after four days and nothing happening on her end. 

Yes, of course I checked with Ohio Bag, the vendor that disappoints with just about every visit...a time travel visit back to 1992 or heck even the 70s.   I think the last time I placed an order with them they had just gotten the news about this interwebs thing and declared it a craze that wasn't going to last, but they'll give it a shot by putting their catalog online -- a catalog with pictures but no prices -- and a downloadable pricing booklet  -- a booklet with prices but no pictures.   Once you cross triangulated model numbers to pricing, then you called your order in to one of the customer service reps standing by to take your order.    Reminds me of the mail order days, back when shopping was an adventure and you didn't mind it taking two months to receive your goods because by then you forgot you ordered anything and it was this big surprise when it showed up.   

Whatever.  Here in the new good old days, fast and cheap and don't tell me no is the norm. Coming up this short on this hardware was both exasperating and  ridiculous and I was running out of time.  Even though I started this project four weeks  prior to the wife's birthday, I'll be damned if I didn't find a way to put myself in a time crunch with just a handful of days and an all-nighter before her birthday.  This was my third attempt on the bag, getting more skilled, creative, and anxious by the day.  DAMMIT!  Somebody out there somewhere has this hardware!!!!   WHERE IS IT?!?!?!

Then I had an AHA!  moment.

Ok, that's a lie.  It was actually a DOH!  moment.  

"What if..., I speculated, "What if it isn't called what I've been searching the interwebs for? "  My mind began to pick up the logic breadcrumbs.   " What if..." I further reasoned, "What if my search term was the equivalent of a ginormous Las  Vegas style  neon sign with blinking waterfall arrows synced to cascading letters that spelled out  " COME AND SUE ME HERMES --I'M SELLING KELLY BAG HARDWARE FOR COUNTERFEITERS RIGHT HERE."   Well, you would call it something other than "Kelly Bag Hardware" now wouldn't you?  

"Kelly Bag Hardware"???  God I'm an idiot.

I headed straight for Ohio Bag but this time I was going to manually slog through ever swinging catalog item that it could be listed under:  "Lock" (609 entries",  "Clasp"  (134 ), "Closure" (43),  "Clip" 128", "Clamp (17), "Catch" (399), Hasp" (39), Latch" (383).  If I have to, I'll search "Whatchacallit", "Thingamajig", "Dohickey"...even "Chingadero".  I grabbed a beer and settled in for the long haul.  And whataya know?!?!?   Searched "Lock" and there it was on the very first page, fourth row.   THANK YA JESUS!

Their nod-nod, wink-wink term was "Turn Lock".  Well, yeah, ok, sure...it's a turn lock.  A turn lock with an EXTRAORDINARLY long protruding shaft.  A turn lock that also comes with strap hardware just in case....oh, I dunno...like say, you might want to stack two straps on it??  Or you maybe you have flap hole in mind?  Why wouldn't we throw some hardware in to cover that design idea.....ya know just on the off chance your own original and imaginative bag design calls for something like that.  It got even better.  Under "Customers Purchased" Section, there were four more sets!  Polished chrome, double plated gold, triple plated gold, double plated nickel, plain gold.  I was so excited and happy I bought one of each .  Here's a couple model numbers:  P-2908-GOLD and P-2908-NIC

The hardware showed up the day before Suzy's birthday and with the all nighter I finished the bag and delivered just in time.

"You made this?"

<Geez...!  A puff of steam rises from my head>        "Yess-sss.   Do you know what it is?"

"A purse?"

<Geez...!>        "Of course it's a purse, Suz.  Do you know what kind of purse it is?!?"

"A croc purse?"

<Up-all-night blank stare. A little more steam rises from my head.>

"It looks great."

Edited June 26, 2019 by cseeger

[farns005]

Very nice!! 

[bikermutt07]

The bag does look great and I really liked the write up.

[HaloJones]

Good execution on the bag, feel your pain on the hardware, sometimes it seems to take longer to find the right fittings than to make the thing!

[paloma]

3 minutes ago, HaloJones said:

Good execution on the bag, feel your pain on the hardware, sometimes it seems to take longer to find the right fittings than to make the thing!

yes, really!

Very nice work!

[toxo]

Very nice. Good job.

[TonyRV2]

Who's Kelly??  

[Smartee]

Looks great!  Loved the post

 

[YinTx]

Heheheheh great story, great bag.  What did you use as the liner?

YinTx

[mikesc]

Nice bag..great post :)

You might find this link handy..

https://tineye.com/

you upload an image to it..and it goes away and looks for what resembles it..so you could use a picture of a Kelly bag..crop it until you had just the lock part..upload that..and maybe..it doesn't work every time, but can save some time when it does.

Those parts  ( or very much like them ) are not peculiar to Hermes..I have some here that came from French "sacs" ranging in age from the early 1900s to the 1970s..even see them still on the Chinese "sacs" ( textile covered in plastic to look like leather to a credulous person, that the supermarkets sell here ) ..Kelly bags..you think they would have sold as many at those prices if she had been called Grace Murphy ?

[JayInOz]

Some day, some how, you'll be rewarded for the effort you put in:)  One of you grand kids will say- with a tear in her eye- my grand dad made this for my grand ma with his own hands! They must have been really poor back then.... Or something like that:) I was shopping with my wife in a town about seventy miles away last week. We were about to leave the main shopping centre and I asked if there was anything else she really needed, as we wouldn't be back there for weeks. She replied that she needed a new bag. I said Well there's a bag shop right there! Walked in and I was genuinely impressed by some of the bags for sale. Leather in various colours, fancy panels, fringes, braided handles, some lovely hardware etc., etc. My wife picked up a big synthetic bag- black, copper coloured snaps and name tag, no other decoration of any kind, and said Perfect! Sixty dollars. I give up. I've been married for a very long time, and I still have no idea what they're gonna want    JayInOz

[Bob Blea]

It's a beautiful bag.  Love the lining.

[Reegesc]

Thanks for the kudos kind folks.  

If you've ever thought about making a Kelly Bag but figured it was too difficult, think again.  Not as hard as you might think.  I've put together a "construction discussion" (not a tutorial mind you) that goes over the general points and includes a schematic with enough information that you could make your own pattern,  just for fair use educational purposes.  You can find it over in the Patterns and Templates section -- "The Sorta Kelly Bag".   

 

On 6/26/2019 at 7:26 AM, TonyRV2 said:

Who's Kelly??  

 

Gene Kelly, of course.  Or were you just pulling my leg?

 

On 6/26/2019 at 8:49 AM, YinTx said:

Heheheheh great story, great bag.  What did you use as the liner?

YinTx

Thanks man.  The lining is a silk fabric I found at Joanns.

 

On 6/26/2019 at 10:43 AM, mikesc said:

Nice bag..great post

You might find this link handy..

https://tineye.com/

you upload an image to it..and it goes away and looks for what resembles it..so you could use a picture of a Kelly bag..crop it until you had just the lock part..upload that..and maybe..it doesn't work every time, but can save some time when it does.

Those parts  ( or very much like them ) are not peculiar to Hermes..I have some here that came from French "sacs" ranging in age from the early 1900s to the 1970s..even see them still on the Chinese "sacs" ( textile covered in plastic to look like leather to a credulous person, that the supermarkets sell here ) ..Kelly bags..you think they would have sold as many at those prices if she had been called Grace Murphy ?

Thanks Mike.  Well Dang, that would be a handy link.  Thanks, I will definitely be using that in the future! 

The prices and the demand....it's mind boogling.  Nothing else comes to mind that is as insane as the price of a Kelly Bag.   I take that back.   Bitcoin maybe.

 

On 6/26/2019 at 4:24 PM, JayInOz said:

Some day, some how, you'll be rewarded for the effort you put in:)  One of you grand kids will say- with a tear in her eye- my grand dad made this for my grand ma with his own hands! They must have been really poor back then.... Or something like that:) I was shopping with my wife in a town about seventy miles away last week. We were about to leave the main shopping centre and I asked if there was anything else she really needed, as we wouldn't be back there for weeks. She replied that she needed a new bag. I said Well there's a bag shop right there! Walked in and I was genuinely impressed by some of the bags for sale. Leather in various colours, fancy panels, fringes, braided handles, some lovely hardware etc., etc. My wife picked up a big synthetic bag- black, copper coloured snaps and name tag, no other decoration of any kind, and said Perfect! Sixty dollars. I give up. I've been married for a very long time, and I still have no idea what they're gonna want    JayInOz

Danngit, I forgot to have kids.  No kids, no Grandchildren.  Mmm...actually, I'm ok with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mikesc]

Worse than the price of a Kelly bag..( which are apparently just the thing for going "on the town" ) ..is the price of a Birkin bag..and Gene could sing and dance and act..whereas Jane, can do none of those things...

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/nita-ambanis-crocodile-skin-handbag-with-240-studded-diamonds-cost-rs-2-6-cr/articleshow/69985372.cms

rs 2.6 crore to usd = $377.000.00..

Yes.Three hundred and seventy seven thousand USA dollars..and some small change..

[Reegesc]

 

2 hours ago, mikesc said:

Worse than the price of a Kelly bag..( which are apparently just the thing for going "on the town" ) ..is the price of a Birkin bag..and Gene could sing and dance and act..whereas Jane, can do none of those things...

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/nita-ambanis-crocodile-skin-handbag-with-240-studded-diamonds-cost-rs-2-6-cr/articleshow/69985372.cms

rs 2.6 crore to usd = $377.000.00..

Yes.Three hundred and seventy seven thousand USA dollars..and some small change..

Exactly, and you would think with Hermes being a French company and all that "Let them eat cake" would still ring true.  That said, making saddles ain't what it used to be either.  

Edit:  I've already begun using that image link.  What a clever idea.

Edited June 28, 2019 by cseeger

[Wayne0820]

Good job, it looks great!

It always takes a lot of time to find a proper hardware with good quality. I bought 3 hardware kits for Kelly or Birkin from Taobao (a China website), where you may find everything. The quality of the hardware is good to me. It comes up with several tiny rivets, rather than screws, to install the hardware. 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.90.37b5613bfvAgDO&id=584199496458&ns=1&abbucket=16#detail

[Reegesc]

17 minutes ago, Wayne0820 said:

Good job, it looks great!

It always takes a lot of time to find a proper hardware with good quality. I bought 3 hardware kits for Kelly or Birkin from Taobao (a China website), where you may find everything. The quality of the hardware is good to me. It comes up with several tiny rivets, rather than screws, to install the hardware. 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.90.37b5613bfvAgDO&id=584199496458&ns=1&abbucket=16#detail

That site looks great and on its way to being awesome if I could figure out how to translate it to English.  Do you know how?  Usually there's a button to "Translate this page"

[billybopp]

5 hours ago, mikesc said:

Worse than the price of a Kelly bag..( which are apparently just the thing for going "on the town" ) ..is the price of a Birkin bag..and Gene could sing and dance and act..whereas Jane, can do none of those things...

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/nita-ambanis-crocodile-skin-handbag-with-240-studded-diamonds-cost-rs-2-6-cr/articleshow/69985372.cms

rs 2.6 crore to usd = $377.000.00..

Yes.Three hundred and seventy seven thousand USA dollars..and some small change..

some people have more dollars than sense.

- Bill

[JayInOz]

I was just reading on another forum that Kamala Harris would be ideal as the next US president, as women are far less likely to act on impulse and do stupid things. And then I read $377,000 for a handbag:) By the way that's $479,000 Australian dollars. Wow.

Couple of Seegers where I live, and I saw Bob Seeger at the Boston Garden in about 1981. Just thought iI'd throw that in:)  JayInOz

Edited June 28, 2019 by JayInOz

[mikesc]

Indeed, agreed Bill :)  but..I'm very happy that the "luxury market " exists..keeps me in groceries and beer etc..means I don't have to tend to sheep and cows ( although I have, and like them ) and be a hand to mouth existence farmer like my ancestors..Same applies to the fetish or fashion, or art, music etc businesses..without people with varying degrees of "spare money" and their "wants" / "desires" and us supplying them with what we make or sell or design or create or all of those things put together..many of us would not have the lives that we do..I'd much rather design , create, make, for the rich, than dig ditches..

Edited June 28, 2019 by mikesc

[Reegesc]

7 minutes ago, billybopp said:

some people have more dollars than sense.

- Bill

Oh Santa, you can't say that, even in the off season. If Nordstroms hears that...<shudder>...you'll be on the Bad Santa list like <snaps fingers> that!  It's all downhill from there.

[Reegesc]

3 minutes ago, mikesc said:

Indeed, but..I'm very happy that the "luxury market " exists..keeps me in groceries and beer etc..means I don't have to tend to sheep and cows ( although I have, and like them ) and be a hand to mouth existence farmer like my ancestors..Same applies to the fetish or fashion, or art, music etc businesses..without people with varying degrees of "spare money" and their "wants" / "desires" and us supplying them with what we make or sell or design or create or all of those things put together..many of us would not have the lives that we do..

It's hard to argue with pragmatism.  It's like that quote from the movie Platoon where Charlie Sheen (Chris) is explaining why he volunteered to join the Army and even requested Infantry Duty.  "I figured why should all the poor guys get drafted and the rich boys get deferrals?  Didn't seem right to me."  And Ketih David (King) replies "Shit, you gotta be rich to think like that."

[TonyRV2]

Ohhhhhh......Gene Kelly.....Shouldn't it have been lined with Gene material then?  

Great post...I've downloaded the PDF as well, thanks!

 

[mikesc]

Come from "farming stock" Irish ( Eire ) you have to deal with the weather, and all the usual small farm stuff..make anyone pragmatic, no sense shouting at the rain when you are lambing outside in winter..I was even military for a while ( RAF ) like my Dad before me ( but he signed up as a youth and stayed in 'til he retired ).."back in the day" the RAF ( and maybe the Army and Navy did it too ) would pay for your university courses, or pay you some "pocket money" while you studied ( still had to do a lot of jobs to pay my way in studies, but any little helps ) if you signed on for a short time with them..Visit foreign parts, jump out of perfectly good aircraft with assorted weaponry, even did marching in lines and what later became known as "yomping" around various bits of Wales and the wilder bits of the UK..Farmers kids ( grew up either on the farm in Eire or RAF bases  around the world, "RAF brat" ) make good military, we can ( most of us ) shoot more accurately than the average recruit, and put up with the weather and the dirt and crap, even put up with Drill sergeants and occasionally idiot chinless pointy head senior officers..plus , it used to pay well..I would not be in favour of any draft or compulsoryness* ( France is introducing compulsory "national service again at 16, IMO huge mistake..any military do not need kids who do not want to be there ) ..Even a short time in the military IME makes you look at life differently..makes you look at civilians differently too..friends in various police services say the same..

What the civilians think are really important "life and death" things..are not..funny, my wife says I'm "pragmatic " too, until, like all Irish, someone steps on my toes, or threatens my family..or does something that I think is really unjust or plain wrong..

*compulsoryness..may not be an actual word.. :)

 

topic drift..how did we get here from handbags..ah yeah..rich people and making things that they want, and people's priorities.

[mikesc]

Gene material..was from France..denim..de Nimes..Nimes being the place where they dyed thick woven cotton the new dark chemical blue..

and here in France denim is sold as "fait en jean"..made in jean..cracks me up every time I see it..especially "blouson en jean"..or "chemise en jean"..which is jacket in denim..or shirt in denim..

The study of jeans ( also known as girl watching ) ..jeanetics..or jeanetic research..in French would be jeanetiques :)