Rescued and reinvented vintage purses

We have a large collection of vintage (70's and 80's) purses and handbags in varying states of repair and disrepair. So I have been rescuing and reinventing them.

While the bags themselves are great, the handles and shoulder straps are often too long or too short, too thin or too wide, too worn-out or just plain too ugly. For example, the woven leather one pictured here had a super long leather "rope" for a shoulder strap. Not only was it unattractive, it was super uncomfortable to wear for any length of time even with the bag empty. A wider and much shorter shoulder strap updates the look and makes the bag far more usable. The new strap is hand cable knit gray merino on the outside and crocheted red merino on the inner side. It is thick and strong and soft.
The ends loop around a short length of the original shoulder strap and attach to the strap with two vintage pea coat buttons.

Another problem these bags sometimes have is that their linings have seen better days. In the case of the bag pictured here the lining in one section could not simply be repaired or patched, but needed to be fully replaced. This gave me an opportunity to add a little interest. Instead of trying to match the plain solid color of the original lining, I used a black cotton with a bright orange and yellow print that matches the felt sunshine patch and the new crochet shoulder strap.