Hi Bernard. Welcome to the forum.
You mentioned the purse to beater bag, you might have over-read the part where the purse failed and spread sand around in the shop. The way I read the purse as bag story "yes, it works -- for a while, keep looking for a real bag."
You might make a single sided bag from a scrap leather chunk and nail it to a high quality plywood backer, lotsa nails around the edge. use it fully supported. This will work -- for a while.
Again, welcome.
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Doug
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