Sarah Donegan with some of the finished articles

LEIGH ROBINSON speaks to a Swindon woman whose creations also help the environment.

TO call Sarah Donegan a bag lady might not be the most polite expression but, considering her line of work, it's the one which is perhaps most accurate.

She makes handbags for a living and they're handbags with a difference because 90 per cent of them are made with fabrics that would normally end up in a landfill site.

Her business, which is based in Old Town, Swindon is three years old and as a result her handbags are constantly evolving.

"Even though my background is in fashion and I love fashion, I consider my bags to be little works of art that are hopefully timeless and are much more about style than fashion," she said.

"I have an absolute love for all things vintage and am a bit of a magpie so I had a huge collection of textiles which I had picked up over the years.

"I knew I had to do something with them and juggled with a few ideas until I came up with the handbag idea."

Sarah is a Swindon girl who was born at the Seymoor Clinic, in the days when it was a maternity hospital.

Now she is 44 and married with two boys, Albert, aged 13, and Earl, five.

At the age of four her family moved to Iran owing to her father's job with the Ministry of Overseas Development.

They stayed there for six years and the family moved on to St Lucia, where they lived for another four years before returning to Swindon in 1978.

"My early education began in a British school in Iran followed by nine years at boarding school in Abingdon.

"I left school at 16 and studied Art Foundation at Swindon College and then went on to Middlesex University to study fashion.

"I went on to design women's wear for commercial companies both here in the UK and Australia where I lived for five years.

"I returned to England and started a family and thoughts of going back into the industry and working for someone full time again was just not where I wanted to be.

"I decided it was time to do my own thing.

"I find it hard at times running a home and a business from that home, so to speak! I hope to have a loft conversion done some time in the future to free up enough space for a work studio."

Most of Sarah's bags are made by her own hand, unless she has a large order and uses a local soft furnishing seamstress.

"I am also building up my portfolio as a website designer (www.sarahlawson.co.uk), so I should be well qualified by now to give it all up and become a juggler!" she said.

"I'm not sure quite where any influences for my bags come from. I think designers are like sponges and absorb every bit of colour, culture, music, atmosphere... whatever it may be... surrounding them and translate it into their work.

"My love of vintage fashion, images, objects, interiors and textiles obviously plays an important role in my inspiration. I also look to artists and designers whom I admire for inspiration."

1:58pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

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