While it’s generally agreed that my couch (a beat-up, near-shapeless, yellow-, orange-brown-, and white-striped thing I picked up four years ago for $15 at St. Vincent de Paul) is a complete and utter eyesore, I’ve refused to part with it on principle—one principle, actually: I am nuts for the fabric. It’s got this old ’70s feel that just reeks with nostalgia (which I can appreciate even if I was born in ‘81), conjuring wood-paneled basement rec-rooms (which I can picture even if we live in the land of no basements). Recently, when a friend gave me a purse designed by Random Nicole, the same rec-room image appeared in my head, and understandably: Nicole’s handbags are made from recycled vintage home fabrics (i.e., couches and curtains), all toeing the fine line between god-awful gaudy and really adorable. My bag has orange/split pea green roses over a white background, with some orange rickrack added along the handle. Inside, there’s a cute orange/lime green/yellow fabric printed with lemons and limes, and there’s a button snap and even a small pocket stitched on the front. There’s plenty more where this came from, too, on Nicole’s Website, from a cute blue/green golf-plaid-patterned purse to a smaller, turquoise, paisley number to a very girly apple-blossom corduroy bag. (Plus there’s her equally cool men’s, women’s, and children’s designs. Look for my own limited-edition couch-bag line—to be sold as-is with cigarette burns from the previous owner—as soon as I’m ready to part with my ugly baby. $63-82.

AVAILABLE AT RANDOMNICOLE.COM