Hands free

There are some occasions when you need to have your hands free and fully operational. When a bag hooked over the crook of your arm, or clutched in your sweaty palm just won't do. And that's when you need a hands free bag, which goes across the body, so you don't need to keep hitching it back onto your shoulder when it keeps falling off.

I've been on the look out for these recently, deciding that they would make excellent Christmas presents for a few people I had in mind, and this is the stash I came back with from the charity shops. Prices ranged from £3 to £5.95.

{recent charity shop finds}

{Eeny, meeny, miny, moe}

I find the charity shops are excellent hunting ground for these type of bags, and you'd be suprised at the range of styles you can choose from. Look for older, vintage styles, rather than anything more recent, as the older styles tend to be made from leather, rather than the nasty plastic versions you see on the high street.

Names to look out for are Tula, Jane Shilton, Suzy Smith, and of course good old vintage M&S.

If they need cleaning up a bit, use a baby wipe, and then I give them a rub with some of this handbag cream (yes, even your handbag needs a moisturiser!) that I bought from Jones the Bootmakers.

{handbag cream from Jones the Bootmaker}