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Shade of Green Vintage Flower Buttons

Shade of Green Vintage Flower Buttons

Getting Excited for the Strap Clutch!

The new pattern is getting there...just a few more days. 

Let me start to tell you about it while I'm feeling energetic.  Usually by the day I get it completely finished and set-up on my site, I'm starting to fade and don't have a whole lot of mental energy left to talk about the pattern. 

I'm calling it the Strap Clutch. Online it helps to have a name that describes pretty closely what it is you are selling.  Informally, I'm calling this one the Amy D Clutch.  Amy was very enthusiastic about this clutch when I first posted it to flickr, and I couldn't help but want to make her clutch sewing dreams come true. 

This clutch was a good learning experience for me, and I hope you will learn some new things too. 

One thing I learned is how to make this kind of bottom--once I figured it out it was a huge "AH HA!!!!" moment. I don't even know what to call the bottom corners, but they aren't boxed. A couple sewing friends stopped by and I just had to know if they had seen this technique before--one had and one hadn't.  The one who hadn't was also very excited.  So if you are one of the ones who haven't experienced them yet, you are going to be amazed (or at least mildly wowed).  

The first few of these I made, I did box the bottoms and you can definitely do that if you prefer.  One nice thing about boxing the corners is you can make the flaps larger and put on a bigger button.  The not-so-nice thing about boxing the bottom is it takes more time, and you will probably also want to slip stitch the flaps to the side of the bag or they will wing out a bit.  So boxing = more time & more hand sewing, but bigger space for a button.

The other thing I learned is the facing for the strap opening is easier to work with if I made the facing larger.  As a lot of you know, I have 3 other patterns with these faced handles/openings.  Each time I've done them I've learned something new. This time it was to make the facing just a little bigger and it will go right through the opening and fall into place easily.

The next new thing you might notice is some additional trimming.  It isn't a lot of extra work, and it is going to make sewing so much easier.  I think you are going to like these small details, and you will be able to use these ideas in your other sewing projects.

And the last thing for now is I will be posting some info about using the large eyelet with this clutch.  I wrote the instructions so it would be really easy to substitute this very cool piece of hardware for the faced opening.  That will probably happen over the weekend, so stay tuned...

Rain Dance Fabric

Rain Dance Fabric

Sample Sale - Yellow Pleated Pouch SOLD

Here is a sunny little pleated pouch for someone to take home!  This one I made with an elastic top on the pouch.  It is the small version of the Pleated Pouches.

It is $8.  US shipping is included.  If you are outside the US, it will be an additional $1 - $3 for shipping. 

If you would like this pouch send me an email. My email is in the upper right column.  The first person to ask will be invoiced through PayPal.  Let me know in your note if you are outside the US, and where you are located.  SOLD - thanks!

For those of you sewing these pouches, let me tell you about the elastic top.  It was very easy to do.  I just added a casing along the top.  

I'm on the fence about whether I would sew it again this way.  It turned out fine, but here are two things I noticed:

1. The pleats aren't quite as crisp.  This isn't a big deal to me, but it does slightly change the way the finished pouch looks.

2. The elastic has to be slightly slack or it starts to pull the sides of the pouch toward the center.  I tried to make a similar pouch a few years ago and could never get the sides to stay put and have the elastic lay really flat against the back.  It is just the nature of the elastic. 

 

Red Poppy Buttons

Red Poppy Buttons

Linen Remnants

A lovely set of 12 linen remnants.