Thursday, January 2, 2014

That's So Clutch? *_*

I've been wanting to making my own wallet for a while. I had initially started with these ideas...

Hand-drafted ideas of what I had in mind. (sorry for the image quality.
It was tucked away, got wrinkled aaand I didn't feel like scanning) :/

and initially was going to use these materials....

Kitten & sea foam green cloth 
However, that project ended up hiding away in my sewing bag. I even had put placement needles in the green cloth. Finally after some intense Pinterest'ing (gawd I <3 pinterest) and youtube searching I found another way to make a wallet/clutch-thingy. The materials would be more to my liking (as opposed to the very thin and flimsy cloth) and it wouldn't take as much work. 

(Note: I had broken my last needle for my sewing machine so I needed a more hand-stitch friendly project)

So this is what I started with....

Gold napkin, multi-colored (neutral) woven placemat,
scissors, gold yarn, placement needles
 I bought the napkin and placemat at Bed Bath & Beyond for $2.99 (mat) + $1.99 (napkin), coming out to $5 dollars total. I also found a pretty pastel green placemat at the Dollar Tree! I may wait to get some needles for my sewing machine for that one. I liked the colors of the placemat and napkin here (above) more for matching most my outfits, so I got started with this one first. 

I cut the napkin and placemat so that it was a bit smaller. The actual placemat was 14"x14" and napkin was about 1 inch longer on all sides. I wanted my clutch to be smaller so I cut it down to about 8 inches. After cutting to size, I lined the mat with my napkin and pinned it. The napkin wasn't necessary, but aesthetically I thought I would be nice to have a lining. I had to tuck away about 1" of the napkin to fit the size of the mat. 

Top is pinned. Bottom is all sewn up. 
So here is the inside lining and outside of what my clutch will look like. Now onto the next step...sewing up the sides!

Here we have a nice bag 8"width x 9" height (open) & 5" height (closed)
 Almost finished!!!
Time for some embellishments. 

Added a shell button? and a little button hidden underneath (like a pearl!)
Also, a nice off-white, gold-trimmed ribbon which wraps around the clutch
Here's what the clutch looks like closed and open

Side view (empty)

Side view-with items inside

Just another side view with items inside

My hand-sewing could use practice and cleaning up, but it's decent enough that it holds this project together. I used a mix of cross-stitch, button stitch, and other ones that I can't even name. I swear it holds well.

I was going to add a gold chain so I can wear it as a cross bag or purse, but decided against it. It looks nice just as is, and the whole reason for the clutch is that it was small enough to hold items, for me to hold and not be bothered by a purse swinging as I show off my badass dance moves on the dance floor.

Which brings me to the point of why I finally got around to this project. I wanted a clutch to take out for NYE. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to actually finish it before I went out. But now I have a pretty clutch to take out on my next dance/bar-venture. 

So, Eat Your Hearts Out Designer-pimpin fashionistas!

... and Happy New Year!


No comments:

Post a Comment