Envelope Clutch

          One of my closest and dearest friends, Angela, had a birthday this week!  Angela is an amazing person inside and out – no matter where our paths take us, I know we will always be close.  Angela and I have been friends since the start of nursing school, are both from Massachusetts, were roomates when we studied abroad in Ireland and both landed here in Connecticut for our first jobs. In fact, we only live down the street from each other! I have long adored Angela’s sense of style – she has the best closet in the world. And I can always count on her to be my companion for trips to Homegoods, Goodwill, and any nifty thrift shops. We have both found a little love in giving old things new life… in my case, that includes my patients I suppose ( for those of you who may not know, I work with geriatrics and I love it!).

          Anywho, for Angela’s birthday I wanted to give her something unique and special. Angela has a particular love for bags (bless her soul). We are always ogling over bags at Marshalls. So, I decided I would make her a cute clutch. I found a tutorial on Pinterest by A Place In the Cloud on how to make a simple envelope clutch. I made a few alterations to mine, which I will show you, but the majority of the tutorial is similar. This is the EASIEST clutch to make that I could find - not even any zippers!

Envelope Clutch

Materials you will need:

• ½ yard outer fabric
• ½ yard liner fabric
• Batting
• Picture of template handy 
• Ruler
• The Usual Suspects: sewing machine, matching thread, scissors, iron

Step 1: Cut two pieces of fabric to template. Your two pieces of fabric will look like houses: 13” wide, 16” tall for the sides, with a 6” point above height of walls.

Step 2: Cut batting the same shape of the lining and outer fabrics, but one inch smaller on all sides.

Step 3: Face two pieces of fabric right sides together and stitch along all edges except bottom.

Step 4: Turn right side out. Iron.

Step 5: Insert batting

Step 6: Stitch bottom closed… I ironed the edges in, pinned, and stitched. You could also roll and stitch – whatever you feel like. This will be the edge of the inside fold that will show when the flap is opened. I tried to make mine as neat as possible, but it was a challenge. Sorry, forget to take a picture of this step!

Step 7: Fold “inside out”. Fold bottom up so that lining is on outside. The lining will be on the outside at this point. Stitch sides closed as close to edge as possible.

Step 8: Turn right side out.

Step 9: Fold down top and iron all folds

Step 10: Here I added a sash across the front to help hold the flap down so it would stay closed. I was too afraid to attempt a magnetic closure… I’ll get there eventually, but for now, this is a pretty cute alternative.

Thanks to A Place in the Cloud for the inspiration and tutorial!!

Happy Birthday, Angela! :)