Tag Archives: clutch

I’m Building a Purse!

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Ok, so I don’t update very often.  Shoot me.  You’ve got to admit I was on a roll there the first of the year.  But then the ADD kicked in and I’ve been off to the races ever since.  On one of my latest romps around the internet, I stumbled upon the absolute, most fantastic, greatest-site-if-you-want-to-learn-I-mean-REALLY-learn-how-to-construct-a-handbag site.  May I present to you HowToMakeADesignerHandbag.com!  I’m sorry, but you need to forget about all those patterns available around the internet.  Don’t waste your money.  Get yourself beyond the market bag and those frustrating frame clutches.  Plant yourself in front of this site to get the skinny on all the designer behind-the-stitch secrets this husband and wife team, Linda and Richard, are practically giving away.   For full disclosure, my only affiliation with this site is that I jumped on their incredibly dirt cheap year membership after watching some of their free videos.  Did I mention it’s a site full of videos showing the step-by-step process of constructing a designer handbag?  Well, it is.  It’s like being inside their heads as they develop their designs and overcome seemingly insurmountable design roadblocks.  All I can say is “YA’LL NEED TO GET OVER TO HOWTOMAKEADESIGNERHANDBAG.COM and take your handbag making to the next level!

That’s all.  Get over there.  Forget my feeble first attempt at constructing a pattern.  It’ll be here.  Go get your knowledge on!

First Clutch Craft #Fail

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Well, it’s far from a masterpiece.  In fact, I’ll be including this as one of my first craft fails for the  next Craft Social, co-hosted by Barbara Forbes-Lyons (@penguintrax on twitter) and Diane Gilleland (@sisterdiane on twitter).  These are great crafty ladies.  You should definitely plan on taking part if you’re at all inclined toward the handmade or just want to see what’s bubbling up in the Maker Movement explosion.  They’ll be hosting the next one Saturday, February 20 from 3 – 5 PM, EST.  Check for hashtag #craftsocial.

Now back to my handbag escapade.  I was “inspired” by this lovely little clutch on Pfaff’s site.  The tutorial was much more focused on bead placement and using Pfaff attachments than actual purse construction.  Being a beginner, I should have opted for a much more detailed tutorial.  The fabric is a lovely retro sample piece from Waverly with a coordinating broadcloth lining.  I made two major mistakes with this fabric.  First, I pre-washed it.  Since it’s technically home decor fabric, it probably should be dry cleaned.  The feel changed dramatically.  Second, I fused Pellon Peltex #70 stabilizer to this fairly light weight fabric.  Perhaps the pre-wash contributed to my folly, but the Peltex creased pretty badly, showing through the fabric.  I think a slightly lighter weight stabilizer would have worked better.

I’m satisfied with the general structure of the clutch.  I’m even impressed with how the contrasting side inserts turned out.  I’ve learned my lesson on installing magnetic closures though – find a tutorial and follow it.  Of course, the closure is not supposed to be showing through to the top flap.  I’ve since had the aha moment that the closure goes on BEFORE the bag and lining are sewn together.  Oh well, live and learn.  This has caused me to be on the look out for a retro pin, flower broach or something to cover up my mistake.

All and all, the project was fun, and it does LOOK like a clutch.  I’ve got several weights of stabilizer now, so I think it’ll be trial and error until I get a good feel for what weight goes well with what fabric.  It’s definitely a fail, but as soon as I find something to cover the obvious closure mistake I think I’ll take it out for a test run anyway.  Like I said, it does at least look like a clutch.