Friday 9 March 2012

Gathered Clutch - My First Attempt!

I found this online tutorial on how to make a gathered clutch via Pinterest (where else?).  It seemed easy enough but being me I knew it was going to be somewhat of a struggle.  I'm enrolled in a sewing class so this would be the best time to do it since the teacher is great at helping students out with their projects.

I got the fabric at FabMo which is a non-profit that collects designer fabric sample usually from furniture/upholstery stores and then sells them to the public.  They have selection events on a monthly basis where you can purchase fabric.  Since it's not-for-profit, you can pay however much you want for the bag though they do have suggested pricing.  The fabric is great for small projects like this since they're not very large.

The online tutorial is pretty self explanatory but the only thing that I would suggest to do is to also gather the top and bottom of the piece where you gather in the middle.  By doing this, it makes it much easier to line up the gathered piece to the other pieces.

I didn't bother with the card holders or the interfacing because I figured I'd start with baby steps and keep it simple.  Also, in regards to the interfacing, since I used upholstery fabric as lining.  It makes the clutch a tad bit more stiff than using regular fabric.

There are a ton of mistakes and poor sewing techniques on this clutch but since it's half black you can't see much of it from a distance (woot!).   I'm taking this clutch public this weekend by going to see the Peninsula Symphony play Beethoven's Emperor this weekend.  Let's hope it doesn't fall apart on me!