Whitlock Is Randolph’s
Queen of Handbags
By Sara Nelson

If you’ve been to the Three Bean Café in Randolph, there’s a good chance you’ve admired the stylish handbags on display there. Glittery evening bags, durable quilted bookbags, and all-purpose purses in textured fabrics can be found nestled in nooks and hanging on hooks in the cozy coffee spot.

The bags are the creations of Janet Whitlock, a skilled seamstress who brings a love of design and an artist’s eye for color and texture to her craft.

Whitlock conceived her bag business about three years ago. In the beginning, she came up with a "menu" of small to large bags with "side dishes" such as extra pockets or a matching change purse. She called her business "The Bag Café."

While the name has stuck, the concept has expanded. Whitlock still has several signature designs, but she can’t seem to stop coming up with new ones.

"I just enjoy the designing process, figuring out the construction," she said.

Whitlock has several sources of inspiration, including catalogues and purchased purses that aren’t quite perfect.

In addition, she’s constantly accepting commissions, such as a friend’s recent request for a laptop computer carrying case.
"I will make anything for anybody," she said.

Although Whitlock’s bags come in all shapes, sizes, and levels of fanciness, there are some common elements. Whitlock favors high-quality fabrics and unusual clasps and closures. She also believes the key to a successful bag is "lots of pockets," and makes sure each bag has several, sometimes hiding them in seams or in the zip fly of her purses made from recycled jeans.

Recycling

Recycled materials are another of Whitlock’s specialties. She collects interesting items such as beaded silk shirts for transformation into bags. She has even gone so far as to felt wool sweaters in her washing machine for an interesting texture.

After she’s done the work of figuring out the design, each bag takes a couple of hours to make. Most bags sell for $20-50.

Sewing is a longtime love of Whitlock’s. As a teen she made all her own clothes.

"I was always proud of being able to sew," she said.

Whitlock is also an artist whose favorite media include oil paint, pen and ink, and stained glass. For many years, she was an art teacher at the Randolph Technical Career Center. She later switched to a counter sales position at Bethel Mills. It took an illness to bring Whitlock to sewing as a business.

Whitlock explained that while she was working at Bethel Mills, she started having problems with her arms. She made a bag to help her carry things. When friends saw it, they started asking her to make them bags like it. A business was born.

Whitlock had already been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Although it’s not clear whether MS caused her arm problems, it does cause fatigue that makes it impossible for Whitlock to work an eight-hour day. For that reason too, the bag business is a good fit for her.

"I can do it on my own time and at my own speed," she said.

At home, stacks of fabrics, bins of materials given by friends, and drawers full of silk cords and buttons line Whitlock’s workspace, which her son, Brian, a carpenter, is in the process of remodeling.

She also has two suitcases full of finished bags--her inventory. Whitlock says she’s still trying to figure out her marketing strategy, especially a way around her impossibly slow dial-up internet connection.

Whitlock’s latest creations lounge on a table next to her sewing machine—a shoulder bag made from Anichini tapestry scraps, a glittery, velvet-lined clutch, a purse made from red jeans with a bright green paisley lining. She has a new idea—a sort of baby sling called a Mayan baby wrap—in the works. Her remodeled studio will soon be complete.

As soon as Whitlock perfects her marketing strategy, The Bag Café seems poised to take off.