Making and designing my own bag started off as a hobby to fill up my spare time and fulfill my need to get away from the computer as I worked as a web designer for my day job.

As the skill matured, my own set of judgement and standard kicks in for what I consider a good handmade bag fit for 'sale'. Why do I stress the word sale? How is it different from making bag for yourself and for others? 

Making bags for yourself means you can customize the design to your unique preferences, design specific sizes for your belonging, decide on the color to match your usual outfits. These are all unique factors to each and everyone of us. But when I apply that to my sales item, I'm only targeting a niche group who share the sentiments with me, but how do I expect them to find me in this corner of the world? So what about if I start making generic design, colors, materials? It doesn't work either, because my unit cost are many times higher than mass produced goods from factory. People would compare the prices. I was a confused and unhappy crafter for a while, crying over the poor sale in my shop.

There is no best solution, but I did try my best to come up with my own standard that could satisfy my creative need and the market's demand for a 'buyable' handmade bag.

Here are my guideline for making and designing PippiRabbit's bag:

• The design and material used cannot be easily reproduced.

• The material must last for a period of time. ( no more fake leather or plastic material that cracks after a while and no to leather that get moldy in our hot and humid weather)

• The bag must have a structure that let it stand on it's own proudly and not slouch into a pile of fabrics.

• There is a theme/uniqueness for each design

I have finally printed Namecard for my PippiRabbit. After some searching on the web, I decided to try Tommy Print which was located at Funan DigitalLife Mall who offer 360gsm paper for $30/100pcs + $6 rounded corner clipping. Which means that each card is $0.36!

The result? The printing quality and matte lamination is average because I can still spot tiny air bubble with my designer trained eye! I can still accept all that BUT what I cannot agree with are the 4 rounded corner that come in obvious uneven size and shape! The quality control is obviously lacking in this area! And when I raised my concern on the spot of collection, the sales person told me unless I opted for die-cut it would be better!? So I paid extra $6 purposely for uneven rounded corner? I think they should just cancel that service!

So what I'm going to do now is buy a round corner punch and correct the mistake myself. Haiz... Sad...