The journey of a handmade bag

It's an idyllic scene, the kind that many a fashion student or creative dreamer aspires to find themselves in. Sitting at a sewing machine surrounded by fabric cuttings, jars of buttons and design sketches, Mary Shears sets to work on creating a handmade bag – one of the many items that she sells from her bright, airy studio in Manchester's Craft and Design Centre.

"People say to me that I’m living their dream, and that I’m really lucky – but in a way I just see it as my job. I can’t understand why everyone wouldn’t have a job that they love," she says, loading cotton onto her machine.

And it's clear that she does love her job. The business, which has grown slowly over seven years to become what it is today, is a result of hard work, dedication, and the assistance of several family members. Today, Mary's mum Louise sits at a chair creating handmade cushions from Mary's designs – something that she spends a few days a week doing.

Quite Contrary Designs sells a range of handbags, cushions, brooches, badges, purses and keyrings – all designed and created by Mary. "I have a bag-making week, and then a 'small things' week where I make brooches, keyrings and things. In a bag-making week I'll make around four bags a day."

Much of the stock she creates is sold in her beautiful studio, and much at her weekly stall on Tib Street's fashion market. The rest is saved for Manchester's Christmas Market – an event that Mary spends much of the year preparing for. "A lot of the bags I'm making now are to sell at the Christmas market," she says. "I'll need around 200 ideally."

The bag that she's making today, however, is to sell at the following day's fashion market. Mary's been trading on Tib Street for the past four years – it's where Quite Contrary Designs all began. After she and artist husband Dave missed an application deadline for the Christmas market, Mary took a stall on the fashion market and began trading every other weekend.

Talking about her first time on the market, Mary says, "The first week I was there I made my rent for the week. I couldn’t believe it. My rent was only something like £28 and I think I made £30 – but it felt really good." And a few years later, after satisfying the application criteria in October 2009, she was offered a studio in Manchester Craft and Design Centre.

Mary has five different bag designs in total, and takes time each year to alter each one slightly – making improvements and adjustments here and there. Each bag design is named after a different woman who Mary knows. Today's bag is an 'Emma' – named after her sister, but there's also Rosa, Dorothy, Emily-Jane, and Louise – the latter, which is a smaller, compact bag, takes its name from her mum. "It's because, like Mum, good things come in small packages," explains Mary, who designs the handbags to reflect aspects of the namesake's personality.

Despite each bag following one of five designs, due to the vast range of fabrics and colours used, each and every bag that Mary makes is completely unique. Today's 'Emma' is made of a hard-wearing lilac fabric, with a blue and lilac floral lining and white ribbon detail. It looks completely different to the other 'Emma' bag on display in Mary's shop, which is made of a burgundy coloured tartan fabric.

The 'Emma' bag, a satchel style, toggled affair, takes just under two hours to make. It's fascinating to watch how quickly a pile of fabric can be turned into a stylish, good quality handbag. "It does feel great," says Mary, "that I can start out with a few cuttings of material and within a couple of hours they’ve become a bag. Sometimes a customer can walk in and buy it straight away."

The next day, I visit Mary on her stall at the Tib Street fashion market. It's like a scaled down version of her studio shop, with a good range of products. 'Emma' is displayed proudly alongside the other bags, with a price tag of £28.

I ask Mary if she'll ever stop trading on the market now that she has her own shop, but she says no, saying that she would miss the sense of community offered by the market. "I have some really good friends here, and everyone understands how each other feels," she says. "It's like my support network. And I like doing it every Saturday – it's like a punctuation mark at the end of each week."

Spending time with Mary is an eye-opening experience, revealing how it's possible for creatives to start small, and with a little hard work and perseverance, turn their passion into a full time job. And it's true what Mary says – she is living the dream of many aspiring craftspeople. But, thanks to opportunities for small businesses to get a leg-up, such as the Tib Street fashion market, it doesn't always have to remain a dream.

As for Emma? She sold, of course. Well, a lady that pretty would never stay on the shelf for long.

Find out more about Quite Contrary Designs here.