Magnetic Purse Snaps

I walked into the Michael's store in Morehead City and asked if they sold magnetic purse snaps. I'd seen them on Michael's online. But the manager said, quite definitively, that they had no such item in the store. A little hunting, however, and the helpful sales clerk and I found this:

I've been wanting to improve these two purses I made. I could never find zippers to fit them, so a magnetic snap seemed a good solution.

 
Here's how it went.
I cut some stiff cardboard squares from an old OJ concentrate can. The purse liner goes between the snap and this cardboard.

The magnetic snap passes through two slits I cut in the purse liner. (This necessitated my separating the liner from the purse, of course, which was an inconvenience.)

Now, layer on the cardboard square.

And lastly, layer on the round metal washer that came with the snap.

Next, you have to bend those prongs down firmly with a pair of pliers.

It's a quite neat little job, and not difficult.

The finished snap works well. It's stronger, magnetically, than I'd prefer, but the cardboard helps stiffen the liner so it doesn't pull.

 I also tacked the liner to the purse with a few little stitches below each snap half.

Now I just have to do the other purse. This took me about 45 minutes, and one snap cost me a bit over $3. All those expenses add up, when pricing a purse to sell.