Bag Lady

CONFESSIONS OF A FAILED MATERIALIST: I can't seem to bring myself to believe that I own any clothing worthy of pulling off a bag from Baltimore's Pistol Stitched- a company run solely by fellow Hampdonite (and Craft Mafia member) Ali Dryer. In a sea of handmade bags, and hand sewn this-and-thats at every fair we attend as vendors OR shoppers, I'm always shocked by the difference in quality between Ali's flawless and sturdy sewing and the rest of the game. Not to mention, the entire design being a heap more sophisticated than your average recycled fabric duct-tape-job. Sure, DIY has it's charm- frayed hems, mismatched threads, uneven seams... ensuring everyone will know you hit up your local craft event, and not your local Target certainly holds it's show-off appeal. But knowing your purchase will stay together after stuffing it with all the cannon fodder from your old purse... er...tote bag, in my case? This is what makes a Pistol bag more priceless to me. Ali's bag patterns are all her own designs, and are beautiful. I mean... spectacular. They seem to be inspired by origami. You'll have to see in person and open some of them to know what I mean. The handles are sanded by hand, and the fabrics? Carefully picked vintage and recycled prints, often only availble for limited editions of a bag, and usually as thick as upholstery fabric (in fact, I think some of it IS upholstery fabric). While I maintain that, based strictly on my lack of presentable wardrobe, I just don't think I could pull off the smaller more "evening" oriented purses, I'm sure you non-New-Hampshire-borns easily could. I myself remain goal oriented in scoring one of her oversized round "overnight" or "knitting" bags....so long as I don't have to learn to knit well and can stuff it with my sandals, nanna sweaters and snacks.
www.pistolstitched.com to snatch one up before (or after, or during) the holiday rush.