I work in a really bad area, and choose to take public transportation. As such, I always try to be prepared in case of emergency with pepper spray, stun gun, etc. However I quickly realized last week when I had an unfortunate incident on my lunch break that it doesn't matter what I have in my purse if I can't get at it quickly while panicking. I saw a purse organizer at one of the big box stores, and decided to make my own, customized to each of the things that I carry on a daily basis. I have a pocket for my stun gun, wallet, portable vinyl shopping bag, iPod, cell phone, mini sketch book, etc.
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To make it, I measured the width of my purse and doubled that measurement. I measured how high in my purse I wanted it to sit. I made three rectangles of fabric, one about 4 extra inches in width. I sewed together the two that are twice the width of my purse, and put in some recycled thin cardboard (from a pilates book/dvd set), and then used the third piece to make the pockets. I measured each item I wanted to put in and made an appropriately sized pocket. When I was finished, I sewed a loop of fabric to clip my keys to. Hopefully now I will be ready for anything that comes my way!!!