Part handbag, part animal (and I do mean, Animal… Do you recall the crazy-wild drummer from the Muppets Show? Like that) — here’s an accessory with a difference.

“Feathers” — This Bag that Bites will be a natural fit to perch off of your shoulder! Faux fur that has the appearance of an olive-colored finch will create a buzz wherever you two will go. Warm golden hand-painted eyes keep this sweet bag soulful, while the fat purple tongue will make sure that you give the right message whenever you need.

The best feature?
The tongue has a zipper in it, to be your secret change purse!

Unique, handmade, and hungry Bags That Bite are the handmade creations of Justine Pallace. She’s actually a jeweller by training and trade, but finds both “satisfaction and fun” in making these cuddlesome monsters. Justine lives and crafts in Rochester, New York, but you can find her furry character handbags at BagsThatBite.etsy.com… if you dare!

H/T to WordVixen and her Hand Crafted Bags and Purses obsession for sharing this great furry find.

The only thing better than a lovely new handbag? It’s got to be a lovely new handbag that’s FREE! …So, how do you rank a chance to win one of 24 spiffy high-end handbags?

To celebrate the launch of their new website, Handbag Planet is giving away 24 handbags in 24 hours on October 15th. Click on over there to sign up for your chance to win the bag of your choice — but know this: I call dibs on that tasty soft green bag, and my fingers are crossed for luck!

Made you look!
And well you might…

Just look at these lovely bags — handmade in family-run workshops in Portugal, from recycled Virgin airline seat covers and other tough stuff.

Limited edition bags, too, so you can feel special as well as virtuous: Only 2,000 Virgin bags have been made, recycling about 1,000 seat covers that were liberated to the handbag-fashion cause during a recent renovation.

My personal favourite is the sleek black Romero style, crafted from old car seat belts and bicyle inner tubes, and lined with recycled Virgin seat cover fabric.

Who knows what jet-setting celebrity might once have rested his world-famous backside on a part of your Worn Again handbag?

But here’s the big thing:

Worn Again is a social business which was set up not only to transform consumption and manufacturing patterns through production of goods made from recycled materials, but also to generate income for Anti-Apathy, a registered charity, kicking sustainable lifestyles butt since 2002.

In this case, the goal is to help Virgin Atlantic meet its goal of cutting the waste it sends to landfills by 50%, by 2012. And, of course, to create a tough and stylish line of handbags, messenger bags, and toiletry cases so you can tote your gear without juggling and dropping all over the place.

Win-win, I believe!
Bonus — just think of the fun of explaining where your bag came from!

[via Springwise; H/T Sharon Hurley Hall]

Check it out: this is my new black-and-white houndstooth check hobo bag, no label — $6.99 only! My frugal heart leapt for joy when I spotted this.

The bag has one big exterior pocket with a snap, and inside is a silky black lining with a good-sized zipper pocket and another smaller open pocket that’s the perfect size for keys or an mp3 player or such. The main part of the bag zippers up, too, so nothing falls out when I drop it oh-so-casually onto the nearest flat surface, which I am sadly prone to do — but then, aren’t we all?

So yes, I went purse-shopping in the hospital gift shop while my mother was having a pre-op poking and prodding… how bad is that?

But after all, it’s not like I abandoned her in her hour of need, and it’s not like I didn’t urgently need a new bag (because I did), and it’s not like I spent a whole lot of money either… did I mention, $6.99?!

Hint, hint!

Saturday and Sunday, December 1 and December 2, would be a wonderful time to jumpstart your holiday shopping…

On those first two days of December, 50% of all proceeds from www.worldofgood.com will fund health and education projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

www.worldofgood.com works with 142 artisan cooperatives in 34 countries to help women gain access to the US consumer market so they can build a sustainable life and their children can thrive. Every single product at www.worldofgood.com is fair trade which means that the person who made it was paid a fair wage and treated with dignity.

Their 2006 fundraiser made it possible to provide medical equipment to a lab in India, build a fresh water system in Guatemala, and build a computer lab in South Africa — let’s see what small miracles we can help to make happen this year!

Emily’s patchwork tote bag

Emily dabbled with bits of sewing when she was really little — driving the sewing machine madly around a piece of scrap cloth while her grandmother made sure she didn’t get her fingers under the needle, mostly!

But now she’s a teenager (gah ! when did that happen?) she’s starting to develop more of an interest in learning to sew, so she’ll able to make her own one-of-a-kind gear.

Last week she raided the sewing cupboard for remnants of fabric left over from other sewing projects, and put together this fabulous patchwork tote bag.

(Excuse the lousy photograph — I just grabbed a snap while fixing supper for the crowd.)

Pretty good, eh? She had a lot of fun picking out the different colours and types of fabric scraps and putting together the patchwork.

A tote bag is a fabulous project for a beginner to learn to sew — all straight lines and not much to mess up — and a patchwork tote bag is even better because it will be completely unlike anyone else’s bag, a true statement of personal taste.

Ribbons and Trims: 100 Ideas for Personalizing Your Home

Emily and I were talking about making a plain fabric tote bag, too, and embellishing it — maybe with ribbon (or fabric-strip ribbon) roses, like we learned to make from Ribbons and Trims — that Annabel Lewis book I had the pleasure to review a few months back.

Pattern?
We don’t need no stinkin’ pattern!

But Super Eggplant has an excellent tutorial that will walk you through the steps of how to make a basic tote bag. It’s all rectangles. Even sewing a slick box bottom to the bag is easy, the way Eggplant shows it.

The design of the patchwork and other decorations, however, are up to your own imagination… and to whatever fabric remnants and notions you’ve got lying around the place, just begging to be sewn into a nice new bag!

Perfect for the artist wanting a touch of Africa in her work — these colorful paper beads are individually made by beaders in Kampala, Uganda. More than just ethno-hip in the extreme, however, these beads save women’s lives:

Through the production of handmade jewelry made of paper beads, Ugandan women generate income to lift their families out of poverty… North Americans partner with Ugandans by opening their hearts, homes, and communities to buy and sell the beads. All profits from BeadforLife are invested in community development projects that, along with income generation, help people escape extreme poverty.

Not the crafty type? Get your jewelry ready-made — necklaces, anklets, bracelets — or do good for less fortunate women by stocking up on notecards, calendars, or handmade jewelery bags (made from hand-printed fabric) with six individual pockets to safely hold your precious trinkets, great for travelling or for a special gift.

Three of the innovative PuppyPurse dog carriers will be on display at the Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains (Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts) in Lausanne, Switzerland. They’ll be part of an exhibit entitled “Bêtes de Style,” running October 2006 to February 2007, that explores the relationship between humans and their pets.

The exhibits at MUDAC focus on the area where design, applied arts, and contemporary art meet and influence each other — putting together both commercial objects and objets d’art “to astonish, challenge, intellectually stimulate, and amuse the viewers.” It’s all rather fascinating, and I can see how PuppyPurse fits right in.

PuppyPurse is a unique, innovative, open-air, hands-free pet carrier designed to be functional and practical as well as artistic and stylish. While reducing stress on a person’s arm, the PuppyPurse cocoons a small healthy pup or an arthritic one safely, comfortably, and elegantly by its person’s side heartbeat to heartbeat… PuppyPurse is available in more than fifty gorgeous fabrics and magnificent colors all of which can be seen at www.puppypurse.com.

PuppyPurse goes Macho!

This is one of the best-designed dog carriers we’ve ever seen. The adjustable strap, to begin with, makes it much more comfortable for the human. And the open design will make for a much happier pooch than being stuffed in a shoulder bag with the rest of your gear, especially in warm weather.

It means that even small, old, slow dogs with little short legs can go where its humans go — backwoods hiking, even!

But for sheer dog-delightful frivolity, I’m also coveting the Charmings accessories from PuppyPurse, because even a country dog likes to glam up to go to town — just a bit of bling for pampered pups of every size!