This might be a dumb question but here goe ............What is the difference between a bag and a purse............my hought is it how many handles or what? Anyway just finished another one tonight.

One picture

picture 2 of opening with zipper

It depends on what part of the country you live in. Some areas call it a purse, some a bag. Here in the deep south, we call it a purse. And yours is beautiful!!!! LOL

quote:

What is the difference between a bag and a purse.

In my recollection purses were small portable containers for things people of either gender wanted to carry with them. Then the female version got larger. Then the name bag came into use for the larger ones. Far as I can tell by now the terms are interchangeable at least for the larger ones.

I use "purse" to mean that thing I carry that has my money, my license, my checkbook, my pen, my Kleenex, my Kleenex-lint-covered Lifesavers, etc. etc. It usually snaps or zips completely closed, the contents stay mainly the same, and it always goes out of the house with me.

"Bag" to me is a tote bag of some sort, often open at the top, that I grab as I'm going out the door & stuff with my water bottle, my magazine, anything that has to be delivered somewhere, etc. The contents change each time.

So in my lexicon, "purse" would be a manageable size & always be closed, whereas a "bag" could be larger and often open at the top. Tote bag, shopping bag...and so on. Different usage from what I call a purse. That's how I decide what to call whatever it is I have in my hands. Now where it gets complicated is after dark, when I might take a tiny "evening bag," which is actually a small clutch purse! Thoroughly confused yet?

How big is the purse/bag you sewed?

the bag/purse is 15"wide and 11" deap the strap is 38" and I guess I will call it a bag because I did't put pockets in it

as usual I had no pattern... done the pc work then quilted by machine in the ditch and same with the strap orignal design by me.

Well, whatever you call it, it's beautiful.

I'm kinda with Starry on the definitions. The last several years I've been using what I call a small 'messenger bags. Long strap to put over my head so the strap goes across my chest from my right shoulder but a small container for my paraphernalia.

Guess that kinda confuses the definition, too.

I interchange the term. As a youngster growing up we always called them purses (except for my grandmother....she always referred to it as her bag). Whatever you want to call it I think it's beautiful.

Handbag, purse, bag used to have separate meanings. Today it sometimes depends on the area of the country you live in. Or, what your momma or aunt called their's.

It is like Coke, soda, pop, and soda pop. All mean the same thing. Just depends on where you live or what you called it when you were growing up. Seven-Up, Dr. Pepper, root beer, Coke, Cream Soda are all called 'coke' in Texas.

I agree with I M Joyce, no difference. I hear everyone say let me grab my purse, others let me grab my bag but no difference in what they are grabbing.

My mom always had her 'pocketbook'. Looked like a purse to me.