How to make a supercool video box bag

So, a couple of weeks ago I became obsessed with making a handbag out of an old video tape box. No sooner did I have this idea, I saw Dolce & Gabbana were putting out a (it plays actual music) a boom box bag , as are Aldo for £50, and a company called ‘Sarah’s Bag’ have a Walkman handbag for £706. Whether it's a stereo, a Walkman or a video, there's a definite trend for vintage tech right now.

I’d put a link to the Aldo bag but despite it being all over the press and there being a picture of it ON THE WEBSITE, you can’t actually buy it yet. Cheers Aldo!


Anyway. As is the case with all my obsessions I had to make it IMMEDIATELY. Only problem was, due to it being 2017 and basically the future, I didn’t have a spare VHS case floating around - so my first hurdle was getting my hands on one. I tried all my local charity (which shall be known forthwith as ‘chazza’ shops - I frequent them a lot) shops and none of them had any videos. This was a saturday so the next day I went to a carboot which yielded the grand total of TWO videos (a box set of Buffy, FYI), so I was all set. Kind of. I then realised I needed a handbag strap, metal ‘things’ to hang the strap from and some velvet for the interior. I ordered a handbag strap from eBay which luckily arrived before the next weekend and then spent that saturday sourcing my ingredients.

I bought, and you will need
2 little D-ring picture hooks
Some red velvet (I bought mine in Brixton market, £3 per metre)
A handbag strap
Superglue
A little button or similar to look like a clasp
Ruler
Scissors
Pen


STEP 1
Take the paper sleeve out of the box and place it on the velvet, ‘wrong’ side up. Draw round it using your ruler, cut it out (don’t be confused by my different scissors, my pink ones were blunt hence switching to the black) and carefully stick it inside the box. Let it dry.


STEP 2
Once the velvet has dried in place, glue your picture hooks to both sides of the box, at the top as shown. The ‘D’ part will be where you attach the strap.


STEP 3
Glue your button on to the top middle of the tape box. This is only aesthetic, and optional, but it will look more like a handbag if you put one on.

STEP 4,
This is where you can get creative. Using the measurements of the box (again using the original sleeve as your guide), on your computer, design any sleeve you like. Of course if you don’t have access to a computer you can skip this step and just use the original sleeve. Or you could do a version with felt-pens... how DIY would *that* be? I made three versions; a ‘video’ nasty sleeve, a Sony Walkman one and then finally what looks like an actual videotape. I found the images online and popped them into my inDesign document. The beauty of this tape bag is that you can slide any sleeve you like into it depending on your mood.


So there we have it; an incredibly simple and easy way of creating your ownVHS cassette handbag. This is a great way to showcase your DIY skills as well as your fash credentials and will cost you buttons.

Bye!