Another Way to Wear Vintage Brooches

Perhaps you are fortunate and have more vintage jewelry than you could ever wear...or maybe you have pieces that are sentimental but just not what you want to wear pinned to your sweater. Why not try pinning them to your handbag instead?

My friend Beth is an accomplished crafter and she whipped up this felted wool bag not long ago. To add a little something extra to it, she fastened two pins to the outside of the bag. Don't you love this?

I have a number of vintage pins that I wouldn't necessarily wear, but hate to just leave in my jewelry box. This is a great solution! And of course, since you just pin them on, you can unpin them just as easily and exchange them out to create different looks. I love how the silver tones of the jewelry complements the grey tones of Beth's bag, but you could also add pins with colored gemstones or painted enamels for a more colorful take. You certainly don't need to have a felted bag to try this trick--I think anything from a cotton tote bag to a crocheted writstlet would be fair game.

I'm definitely going to go through my jewelry box and look at my brooches in a whole new light. I imagine you could easily use large clip-on earrings or dress clips in much the same way, although you would probably want to sew those on with a few quick stitches. I think this is just what my tired winter wardrobe needed!