My reason for emailing today, however, is because I came upon the website of a London based designer that has leather shopping bags like the project you are working on. I found it on another blog site I frequent. The website is http://www.natthakur.com. They produce the style you are working on and one that looks just like a brown paper shopping bag, as well as a couple of others. I thought you might be interested in checking it out.

Pretty cool eh? Of course I had to go poke around. The designer is Natalie Thakur. It was hard to find a close up view of her bag but I poked around and found this. There are differences between our two bags. Hers aren’t lined but the handle fold lines (which become the bag sides) are top stitched. Type of leather isn’t described but I imagine it’s cow which is a sturdy choice. The dimensions are listed as L = 52cm x W = 28cm x D = 13cm. Mine are L=58, W=33, D=16 (cm) so mine is a bit roomier. I can only guess she copied the same source I used for the basis of my bag, the ubiquitous throw away plastic bag.

The price of her bag is 140 pounds ($230.). Interestingly enough, her bag was voted #1 of the 50 best xmas gifts for women in The Independent’s Information magazine in Dec 07.

Many people think shopping bag is synonymous with grocery bag, so you might want to call your creation a tote bag, or drop the word bag and just call it a tote. A “stowable leather tote” or “compressible velvet tote” warrants a much higher price point than a “shopping bag.”

I suggest using balled up bubble wrap–to keep the bag lightweight but filled out to the max–to show the full effect in your promotional photos.

Kathleen I’m curious about how you press leather, so I’ll look out for that entry. Thanks for sharing this process.