Originally Posted by
BellaBoo
For the totes and purses I have made, I buy cheap ones from thrift stores and take the hardware off them. The new hardware usually cost more then the fabric to make one. When I started looking I found many cheap purses at yard sales that had great hardware that wold be hard to find to buy.
I have done this several times. The thrift store bag may not be of my liking but if the hardware is in good shape, I will snatch it up in a heartbeat. Sometimes the magnetic closure I buy new costs more than all the hardware I scavage from a used bag.