DIY Kate Spade Owl Purse

November 1, 2011

I’ve always had a thing for animal accessories– from rings, to lamps, photo holders… the list goes on. But I really love owls. 🙂 This Kate Spade owl purse has inspired me for a few years– I even made a tutorial of it a couple years ago. (But now I am a bit embarrassed by the original attempt… Sometimes I get so excited about a project I am not patient enough to do it well.) 🙂

Kate Spade on the left, mine on the right.

For the base of the purse, instead of using a tattered old purse I had from middle school, I bought a brown purse from Handbag Heaven, one of the sister stores owned by the company where I work. 🙂

Comparison:

And yes, I do have a construction paper fish taped to my empty bag of water. When I was making this purse, I looked at this Kate Spade ad for so long that I realized I had a brown furry capelet, a bunch of bangles, and an owl purse… why not try to take a photo like the ad? I mean, usually I get my girl Myrtle to model my stuff, but this was a special project. 🙂

*And I did not have a yellow dress to wear under the cape so I am totally wearing a yellow t-shirt around my waist. #Resourceful?

Also, I am pretty sure that the Kate Spade girl did not have a real fish so my construction paper one is totally legit. 🙂

Click here to see the rest of the post and how I made the owl!
How to make the Kate Spade owl purse:

You need:
-Purse
-Superglue
-Leather
-Grommets
-Grommet puncher
-Beads or buttons for eyes
-Paper towels to make templates of wings
-Patience 🙂
-Spray Paint

Step 1:Cut out all the patches of leather that you need for the wings. I layered paper towels on top of the purse and cut templates to put on the leather. If you don’t want to use lots of leather, you can just cut one piece for the wing, but I like the layered effect that the real purse has.

Step 2:Glue the wings on. I used the best superglue ever– the E-6000. Seriously. This stuff is not expensive and it is flexible. Perfect for the crafter. For the middle section, leave a bit of the wing unglued so that you can glue the little feathers underneath. To clamp down the superglue on the purse, I used an assortment of claw clips and bobby pins. They work really well even though it doesn’t really look too pretty. Let this dry, preferably overnight.

Step 3:Cut the feathers out. I cut little sections like that because I had these little leather remnants to use up, but I recommend cutting them in one strip. It makes it easier. After you have them cut out, punch the grommets into the feathers.

Step 4:After you have the grommets in the feathers, glue the feathers together so that they are one section. Don’t glue the bottoms of the feathers down to the purse. You want them to flap a bit. Don’t get your superglue on the suede, either.

Step 5: Cut out the eyes.
I just notched little pieces out of the circles I cut for the eyes. Then I stitched the little yellow heart beads to one layer of the leather. Then I glued them all together.

Step 6:Cut out the triangular piece of leather that goes above the eyes. Glue this into place, leaving a little open on the bottom so you can slip the eyes in. Put a bit of glue on the back of the eyes and then slip them under to make the cute angry owl face. Make sure everything is in its place. You can let these stages dry and then go back and touch parts up with a dab of glue. This is where patience comes in. Don’t hurry!

Step 7:The beak.

I didn’t have gold leather so I just took some gold spray paint and painted the suede side of a little snippet of leather. Worked perfectly. Then you just need to cut out the diamond shape and glue it in place between the eyes.

Step 8:

Glue everything down and make sure everything is going to stay. The thing about the E-6000 glue is that if there is enough glue there, it is not going anywhere. You just have to make sure it does not show.

Make sure the edges are down. This is where the claw clips come in handy. Thank you 1999. 🙂