Lotus Clutch

Since my Little Clutch went so well, I decided to make another one from the remnants that I bought at the leather store.  Next up was the embossed black leather. 

Ooh!

I pretty much followed the tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home with special guest blogger Cheri from I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar.  Love her blog!

Any who, I took my leather and decided how big I wanted the clutch.  This time I wanted it to be more of a daytime one that you could carry around that would hold more stuff.  Although, the bigger the purse, the more crap I accumulate in it!  Or is that just me?!

 

Nice, this piece even has a hole in it!  I guess I should have unfolded it the whole way before purchasing.  Ah, buyer beware, I guess!

Okay, so here it is cleaned up now.  I still have quite a bit of scraps left and yet, the piece looks just as big.  Hmmm....

You just can't get the full effect of the leather.  Here, I'll take a close up of it.

Leather, now smile pretty for the people!

I think the leather showed too much teeth.  What are you gonna do?

Alright, sorry, I think I might be a little delirious from this project.  It only took me a couple of hours, but man it was a turd to get my sewing machine to cooperate with me tonight.

So, I have my rectangle now.  Next I will crease the leather to make the fold where the bottom is and then one fold for the flap.  Did I confuse you?

Then, I cut the flap so that it would look more like an envelope.  See.....

I took out my fabric stash and chose the one that I liked the most.  I was really digging the Amy Butler "lotus".  So that's what I used.  I just cut a rectangle close to the same size as the clutch.  I then ironed wonder under onto the back of it and then ironed that onto the leather for the lining.

Once I had my lining all ironed on I tried to decide what I wanted to do differently for this clutch.  I really wanted to make ruffles, but couldn't figure out how to make then without it becoming too bulky.  Then I had this idea...what if...well, you never know if you don't try, right?!?!?!

I cut three one inch strips from the leather...

Now I had to figure out how to attach them together to make one long strip without, again, causing it to bulk up.  Hmm....what if....

I butted the two ends together and just zigzagged them together.  And....it worked!  Amazing what a sewing machine can accomplish!

Here are my three strips sewn together...they totalled 44 inches which I figured would be a good length.

I then marked every 1 inch on the back of the strip with chalk.  It rubs off so easily...I really love using it instead of disappearing ink or anything else.  Then I began the ruffle making.  I sewed to the first inch mark, then I doubled over and began the sewing again and then once I was finished with that ruffle, I repeated the process until I was completely done with the ruffled strip.  Sorry, no pictures.  It was getting really late and I was pretty delirious by that point.  Must!  Get!  Sleep!

Alrighty!  Bright and sunny eyed I was in the a.m.  I then zigzagged the ruffle strip onto the edge of the flap.

Kinda cute,huh?

Then I just zigzagged across the opening and the sides.

Next I picked one of the buttons that I didn't use for the Little Clutch.  But I really didn't like it all that much black.  It needed to be a little different.

So I whipped out the old spray paint!  Gotta love some spray paint!

See....much better!

Then I took me some good old fashioned fishing line and sewed the button onto the flap.  Love it!  It's clear and pretty darn strong too!

Then I glued on Velcro for the closure.  They are self adhesive, but I like to make sure that they aren't going to go anywhere.

And it is nice and big, but not too big.  You can put your wallet in there, a pair of sunglasses, keys and some lipstick or gloss...plus you could probably put more in it if you needed too!

May I introduce you to the Lotus Clutch.

Thanks for stopping by...hope you enjoyed my newest project.

I've linked up to Whatever Goes Wednesday over at Someday Crafts.
Go check it out!   There are a ton of projects over there.  Some really talented people out in the blog-o-sphere.