While walking her dog, BlogHer member Kelly Wickham (MochaMomma) passes a neighborhood church that lately has an interesting sign in front: So you Don't Want or Need to go to Church? Where do you Learn About Compassion? On the Internet? For Wickham-like many of us- the experience has been an overwhelming "Hellz Yes!" 

So when she was faced with a unique problem at her school, she turned to us- her internet supporters- for assistance in dealing with this challenge.  One she is calling One Small Purse.

Students have never been allowed to carry backpacks, but the issue
that keeps coming up are the girls’ purses. Hey, I’m as fashion forward
as the next gal so I know that big purses are here to stay. When my
male students complain that girls get to even carry purses I remind
them, gently, that as soon as they have to carry around tampons and
Midol this won’t be an issue. 

Some of the biggest complainers have come to see me in my office or caught me in the hallway or a classroom:

Why can’t we carry big purses? I saved up $50 to buy this and it’s the only one I have! I can’t buy another one.

This is stupid! I’m a good girl. Why are we always getting punished?

Who even SELLS small purses? Everything in the stores is big.

Those girls have a point.  I am NOT a big purse kind of person - small in stature, and carrying primarily a wallet and cellphone, I see no reason for them to be slopping around in something more akin to my grocery bag.  So I've been thinking that I will have to start sewing my own purses.  Small purses, that accomodate the small items that I need to always carry. 

Then Wickham really hit home with:

Do you have an old, small purse you’d be willing to donate?

Can you purchase a small purse that we can use for our Purse Drive?

My intention is to take all donations and sell them for the set
price of $5 for any girl who wants to come to the Purse Shop I’m
setting up in school and then give the money to the school. My seven
girls will help me set it up, arrange the purses for display, collect
the money, and do a really good thing. A small thing, but a good thing
nonetheless.

Here’s what I was wondering: can you help? More details on where to
send purses coming soon. Maybe a widget! A button for your blog! But
most importantly, you get that really good feeling of doing some good
in the world and showing compassion to a bunch of teenage girls you
don’t even know.

Now we're talking!  I can sew and design some great small purses- work out all the details and get some internet compassion going by making a few of these purses for the girls at Wickham's school.  Alas, old small purses I'd had in my closet were donated to charity several months ago, though a check of these thrift stores yielded only wallets and big purses on a recent check.

My summer small purse would be a perfect size, and I'm not the only one who thinks that creating a pattern from an existing purse is a good idea.  Kelly at scrapblog did the same thing.  However, it's macrame or crochet -and I'm not sure that if I took apart it wouldn't completely ravel on me.

So it's on to other inspirations. 

A search of purse tutorials yielded this tutorial (PDF) for making a Japanese Knot Purse.  Fast, simple and the perfect size for the Small Purse Project, I will be cranking a couple of these out this afternoon.  One will be cut from the graphic portion of the Amazing Grace t-shirts we received at BlogHer08.  Someone I think someone in Wickham's school will identify with the "Breaks The Rules/Unapologetic/Breaks the Rules" theme of this shirt.  And who won't think a refashioned t-shirt purse is cool?  (well, OK maybe not a fashionista... but I love the idea.)

This hobo bag is too big to be used, but I'm thinking if the body were cut in half and the straps made half as wide- it would be a great small purse.  Still, not something I'm looking to work with myself.

I think I've found my perfect solution.  A couple years ago, when I first started contemplating making My Perfect Purse -because I could not find it in any store- I purchased Hip Handbags, by Valerie Van Arsdale Shrader.  About half of these purse designs are small in nature, and created to be utilitarian to extremely hip.  Yep.  If you need me... I'll be sewing purses.

Can you help MochaMamma with her Small Purse Project?  Some further details:

The dimensions of the purse should fit a regular sized piece of paper. Nothing bigger than 8.5 x 11 will be allowed. 

My mom is letting me use her post office box (thanks, Mom!). If you’re ready to send anything please do so at:

Kelly Wickham (don’t use Mocha Momma for the title – I hear the Postal Service doesn’t have a sense of humor)

P.O. Box 9465

Springfield, IL 62791

One of the most inspirational ideas I heard in yesterday’s comments was adding a note with encouraging words in each purse. Obviously, that’s not a requirement. But boy, would karma be kind to you if you did that!

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.