Well, it looks like I found my travel purse. In my closet of all places.
I’m a sucker for a Vera Bradley bag and I fell hard for this one, which I found at a thrift store at some point in my travels, but I’ve never used it because the straps are such a disaster. The bag is a little worn if you look at it closely, but, really, if it wasn’t for the shoulder straps, it would have a lot of life left.
This is exactly the sort of bag I want for my trip. It has a zipped top, long handles, is lightweight, has tons of compartments, is the perfect size, can be laundered, and can be scrunched up to fit where I need it to in my luggage. It even sort of matches my palette since it has pink and purple. 🙂
Shame about the straps. 🙁
Well, while looking for something else this afternoon, I came across an old tee-shirt with paint on the front. The back was in good shape and the colour just happened to match the Vera Bradley bag.
A couple of hours of hand sewing later, ta-da!
Perfect! 😀
You’re officially stalker. 😉 And thanks! I am very pleased with myself. 😀
I’ve been replaced.
Never! 😀
Great!
Thanks!
That’s awesome! It’s amazing when you can salvage an old fav 🙂
It’s not even an old fav since I’ve never used it. Now, it’s a new fave! 😀
Soft-side and long handles are perfect for traveling. Good Save.
Thanks!
Good move! That’s the 1 thing I dislike about the Vera bags – I love the now-retired Betsy design. I was thinking of taking the material that is wrapped around the cardboard bottom stiffner and doing that to the handles — most of which look just like yours. Definitely a design flaw for Vera products.
Veras are made from rather cheap quilting fabric. I don’t think they’re meant to last. 🙁 I found a blog where the person had the same thought as you and was advised not to bother by someone who knows more about fabric. For a truly durable repair, she was told to use upholstery fabric or even upgrade to leather. This bag doesn’t have the bottom stiffener. My other two Vera Bradleys do.
Clever Lady you are! Well done! I love fabric bags and the handles always go first so I cut a 2 bias strips of a coordinating or contrasting fabric and machine stitch it on and over each edge of the strap before I even start using it. Makes the bag last a nice long time. Looking forward to your adventures in Bulgaria and beyond. Really enjoy your adventurous spirit!
Thanks!
(I really need to learn to machine sew…)
Have you considered using vacuum bags for compressing your soft clothing? You don’t have to buy vacuum bags per se, you can use clear construction bags, fold them over and tape them with duct tape, leaving enough room to get the vac hose inside. This is great for compressing the fluffy stuff.
Shoes are always a bugbear, what to take and or leave? I used to travel by sidecar combination across Europe, you have only so much room but you can take almost everything however when travelling two up on an aging GoldWing you really have to trim the tree, no room for flash!
Making space for that odd bottle of wine really puts the squeeze on available space and had to resort to a tank bag. Anyway enough about me, have a wonderful safe holiday. Eastern Europe is still unspoilt and will be an eye opener!
Safe travels
Colm
I did consider those bags, but I wanted to avoid falling into the trap of having too much space and ending up with too much weight. 🙂
Shoes were actually not that difficult to sort out, especially since I have room for that pair that I put on top. I will need to get something if I end up somewhere with a wet winter, but if I have what I need to get me through a cold(ish) dry winter.
Sounds like you had some nice adventures!
Eastern Europe appeals to me for many of the same reasons as Mexico, it hasn’t quite caught up to the “Western” world yet and is in many ways still developing. I think it will be fun!
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