Sunday, February 13, 2011

Cute Clutches!

When I go to Target or any other department store, I often browse past the clutches and wallets to check for sales! I love clutches, but rarely buy them because they are usually over priced and made of cheap materials. I found this fantastic tutorial on how to make a clutch so today jumped right in and made two. I have never really sewn in zippers before, so I was so EXCITED for what I did today.


The full zipper clutch tutorial is available from Skip To My Lou.

Here are some photos that I took along the way.

The front of the floral clutch. 

The inside lining with credit card holder slots.

 The zipper end tabs. 

Close ups of the zipper end tabs. 

Pinning the outside and liner pieces to the zipper.  

One side sewed to the zipper, ready for the next. 
 Pinning the outside and liner pieces to the zipper. Because of the pleats, I pinned very frequently. 

You must leave a gap when sewing up the liner piece. The first clutch I made, I left the gap in the side of the liner. This make it extremely hard to sew once I had the clutch right side out. This time, I put the hole in the bottom of the liner to make it easier to sew once finished. 

Here are the finished products, each one has place for credit cards/ids and a divider pocket for a checkbook or receipts.

2 comments:

  1. Sewing a zipper closure to end at a bag's tip or edge is always awkward, no way around it -unless you change the design.

    I'll leave links to a suggestion. The first is a proto, a rough rendition of the concept so you can see what I mean.
    http://www.fashion-incubator.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/proto_cosmetics_bag.jpg

    Obviously it's squared off and a bit masculine looking but the zipper doesn't have to come down so far -just off the edge so it can be sewn into the side. Also, you can vary the width of it so it's not so boxy.

    This second link is to a final version.
    http://www.fashion-incubator.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/diva_cosmetics_bag.jpg

    It is still the same body but looks much more feminine with the faux racy snakeskin (it's embossed calf hide) and the pink lamb body. It's lined in a teal and pink silk jacquard.

    Anyway, this zipper is a lot easier to sew. HTH

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