Posted on 09/15/2010 9:46:17 AM PDT by merry10
Many people wear military camouflage as a fashion statement, but not many can say they've worn the real fatigues of an American service member. Now a local business woman is giving new life to retired uniforms.
Eve Baum moved to Central Pennsylvania from Canada six years ago. Armed with a degree in fashion design, she started a small handbag business from home. But she says "something" was missing.
"I was doing some life searching," Baum said. "I wanted to do something with a purpose."
In 2007, that purpose came in the form of a local soldier who wanted to honor his family in a special way.
"A major from the U.S. Army actually sent me his fatigues in a box and a letter asking if I could transform his fatigues into a handbag for his mom and his sister, who was pregnant, in time for Christmas," she said. "When I was cutting the fabric, I got chills because this was my big idea. This was what I was supposed to do."
From there, she began fashioning fatigues for a new project: Militaryhandbag.com.
"It's really easy," she said. "You just find your fatigues with all the names tags and the patches, put it in the box and we reimburse your postage fee up to seven dollars."
The finished product comes in about two weeks in the form of custom handbags, backpacks, wallets, journals, pillows and even baby blankets. The products are stitched with the hope it will keep families feeling close to their service member, wherever they are.
"We do a lot of fallen hero bags, which are very touching for the person - whether it's a mom or a wife - it holds a healing process in it," Baum said. "I get very emotional just telling you about it."
If you don't know anyone serving, you can still support the cause by buying a bag made from a donated uniform - at least 10 percent of every sale is given to charities benefiting the troops and their families.
Baum said it's her little way of saying thank you to those who helped her achieve her own "American dream."
"When I came here I was mind-blown by the patriotism and the American heart - the soldier, the Army, the American flag," she said. "It's a great honor to be part of this project."
Military Handbags and Accessories start at $8 dollars, and go up to about $85.
Baum officially moves her operations into a Shippensburg warehouse next week, and is looking to hire seamstresses.
For more information on the project and job openings, go to www.militaryhandbag.com or www.facebook.com/militaryhandbag.
Nice looking bags! Great variety of things. Well-priced. http://militaryhandbag.com/index.html
Never heard of this. Great idea! Thanx for posting
Great stuff
A brilliant and honorable idea!
File this under “why didn’t I think of that?”
I applaud her, but I do NOT want my wife to see or even hear about these camp purses. I do NOT need anything to make it more difficult for me to find her purse at 3 in the morning, when I routinely sneak into her purse for another $20.
Heck, that could cost me as much as $100 bucks of mad money a week. That could screw me out of nearly 5K a year. ;>)
Seriously, I love the idea and, I really do take money out of that purse, almost daily, but... I think she already knows. LOL
Start to worry when she gets a pure the dame color as your home’s decor. Then it will really be camo.
My wife may like this bookmark.
LOL.... My youngest granddaughters’ favorite color is purple. So what does my wife do? She painted the master bath... purple... yes purple! I can’t feel manly while shaving in a purple bathroom.
So, the little one is here once or twice a month, yet I have to see purple every single day... several times. Purple walls, purple towels, purple women junk, purple this and purple that. I like reds, dark forest green, black and white... “cave colors”, not purple!
Oh, as a side note, she named one of my chickens “Hanna”.... you guessed it, the little one likes Hanna. Of course, now I will never be allowed to bring “Hanna” to the dinner table. I told her that I named all the other chickens with the same name, Obama. At least I will be able... process the rest of those critters.
So as you may see... I am already worried. ;>)
I bet she will love it!
I was in a saloon here about two weeks ago. A guy at the bar pulled out his “wallet.” It was basically a box for a deck of cards, taped over with pixelated ACU. The guy’s son found a roll of ACU tape at Michaels and made it for his dad. Dad keeps his money clip and credit cards in it. I’m going to have to try that.
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