An apparatus and a method for attaching at least one carrying handle to a bag, such as a shopping bag, grocery bag, or the like. Individual handles are severed from a continuous web of handle material. Bags are conveyed at a predetermined velocity, with a longitudinal axis of each bag substantially perpendicular to the bag's direction of travel. Each carrying handle is transported proximate a front or back surface of an associated bag, and in a direction of travel wherein a longitudinal axis of the carrying handle is substantially parallel to the direction of travel of the bag, and substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bag. The handle is transported at a velocity substantially equal to the predetermined velocity of the bag. The handle is applied to the bag when a handle accepting region of the bag contacts an attachment panel portion of the carrying handle.