I admit it, I’m a bag lady. I just love bags. A bag for everything and everything in a bag is my motto. I’m always searching for the perfect purse. It has to be large enough to carry 4 pairs of glasses, a wallet (slim), a phone, some pens, a small note book a hand held telescope and it absolutely MUST have a place for me to hook my keys. I’m definitely a function over form kind of girl but show me a bag that can meet my functional needs AND look good and I’m all over it. For a long time, I was a huge Baggalini fan.  Then I found this Dakine mini backpack while traveling last year and I was in heaven. Cute but wicked functional. It didn’t get much better than that. Well that is until I found The Cross Body Bag by Dawn Shew of SeamsFineKS.

I found Dawn via an online auction organized to raise funds for Jessica from Balancing Everything. I was thrilled when I won the auction for the custom made cross body bag. As soon as then auction closed Dawn promptly got in touch with me to discuss my needs. Here’s a clip of the email I sent her.

“On a regular basis, I carry my Kindle or a notebook and 4 pairs of glasses, three of which are in an over size cases. Those three can more or less roam free in the bag. The things I perpetually chase are my iPhone, my reading glasses (typical glasses case) and my wallet (a slim item that just holds cash & credit cards). The wallet and the glasses could share a pocket.

I am not a gentle flower 🙂 I am ruff and tumble and go through life with gusto. My favorite color is purple. Blues and greens come in second and third. Red is great for contrast, but I tend to shy away from yellow and oranges. White is a color I admire from afar because inevitably I will spill my tea or accidentally smear some chocolate on it :).”

She showed me some fabric swatches and I narrowed it down to a lilac & brown combination or a dark blue. Once she told me the Lilac was outdoor weight fabric I was sold.

I love it! It holds all my necessities and is cute to boot! It’s very well made and very sturdy. The wide strap is very comfortable and since it’s adjustable, it works both cross-body and just over the shoulder.

 You can find more of Dawn’s work at http://www.etsy.com/shop/SeamsFineKS.

Note: I received no compensation for this review. Dawn donated her time and materials to help Jessica. I wanted to highlight her good deed and talk about an awesome bag.