DIY brooch handbag: How to decorate your purse with vintage brooches and pin

Lately, I’ve been itching to craft again. A few years ago, I got really into painting and cross stitching, but I found myself greatly overwhelmed by the acrylic paint tubes and cotton floss overtaking my bedroom. After donating boxes upon boxes of hobby supplies, I still have an abundance of jewelry making supplies and junk jewelry since I run vintage jewelry reselling business. 

Needless to say, I have a TON of defective vintage brooches. And so, I wanted to do something fun with them other than repairing them and sending them out as freebies. If you’ve latched onto the crafty/junk jewelry TikTok algorithm, you may have come across crafty zillennial women plastering every inch of their designer bags with brooches. 

I wanted to create a fun brooch bag, too, except I wasn’t about to destroy an expensive Coach bag for a DIY project. So, I hunted down a nice purse at the thrift store and looked through my little hoard of broken jewelry.  If you’re interested in decorating your purse with vintage brooches, here’s how to go about it in the easiest and most economical way. 

Gather your materials

What you’ll need for this DIY purse project is, of course, a purse and brooches. I’ve seen people decorate Coach bags with brooches, but the thought of poking holes into a designer bag is blasphemous to me – it’s probably just my inner reseller screaming at me not to destroy a perfectly good bag. 

Personally, I went with a thrifted $4 black pebbled faux leather Rosetti purse, but you can use any old bag you have at home, too. I preferred a pebbled and black purse because I thought it would be more forgiving if I needed or wanted to move my pins around. I can only imagine that an extra smooth purse will look pretty messed up if you keep moving your brooches around. I prefer the texture of leather/faux leather over a canvas or nylon purse, but whatever purse texture you go with is totally your prerogative. 

Next, you’ll want to have a few brooches handy. I buy a lot of brooches in bulk for my business and end up keeping broken pieces. Besides hunting down pieces at your local thrift stores and estate sales, you can easily buy craft lots online on marketplaces like eBay and Mercari. You can even search  for lots by themes if you’re into a certain motif. 

Whether you choose big or small pins is really up to you. With scatter pins, you can fit in more pieces and create a sort of image on your purse. On the flip side, large brooches can really help you make a statement, and I know a lot of my customers love blingy rhinestone and huge enamel floral pieces for purse embellishing. 

Consider using earrings

Other than brooches, you can also upcycle broken earrings and random beads you have around. With traditional post earrings, It’s a good idea to cut down the back with micro flush cutters so that you don’t end up stabbing yourself. Personally, I just bent the post back into a safety pin shape and wove the post into my purse handle. Just an FYI that your mileage may vary with this lazier method!

Prep your purse and arrange your brooches

I gave my purse a quick wipe down with an antiseptic wipe inside and out (which might be risky for certain materials, but it seemed OK for this faux leather Rosetti handbag). Afterward, you’ll want to lay your brooches onto your purse to figure out where you want them to go before pinning them down. I didn’t really stick with a specific theme or arrangement since I mostly worked with whatever I had on hand, but I did loosely go with gold tone and animal pieces. 

After arranging your brooches, secure each piece onto your purse by pushing the pin needle into the material then back out. Then, close the needle into the clasp once it is out again. 

Personally, I stuck with decorating one side. I didn’t want to have rhinestones and faux pearls falling off if I set one side onto a surface. 

Reinforce pins with B-7000 or E-6000 glue

When working with broken pieces, you might want to use jewelry glue — specifically, B-7000 glue or E-6000 glue. I have a ridiculous amount of B-7000 glue tubes lying around for vintage jewelry repair. The nice thing about this glue is that it offers a strong hold but does have flexibility, so you can remove it if you really need to. Since epoxy glue dries hard and is super sticky while curing, I wouldn’t recommend it for this project. (It also STINKS.)

If you have a piece without a pin back or with a defective one, you can dab jewelry glue behind your brooch before you lay it down on your purse. Some people also glue down non-defective pins for extra peace of mind. Whatever you need glued down, just be sure to allot drying time – a 24-hour window should suffice. 

This glue also comes in handy if you want to work with rhinestones or faux pearls, either to repair broken brooches or bedazzle your purse. It’s just a nice crafting material to have around, and it’s only a couple of bucks online. 

And that’s it! Decking out your purse with vintage brooches is a fun and easy project where you can end up with an impressive final product. While you can buy brooches by the piece, you can save a pretty penny by decorating your purse with junk jewelry, whether it’s stuff you have lying around or from big craft lots. There really are no rules — arrange your brooches as you see fit, pin them down, and maybe secure them with a bit of glue. And voila, you have a maximalist’s dream of a purse.