Zippered Clutch

          Happy November!! I hope everyone had a goulish night last night J We will be doing Halloween next week here in Connecticut – the storm damage is too bad in our town to let the kids out and about safely. There are a TON of kids in my neighborhood and I was so excited to finally be able to give out candy (our last apartment had no kids nearby), so if I have to wait a week I will. That is, of course, if I don’t eat all the candy first. I’ve made a pretty big dent already.

          Anywho, I’ve been experimenting with clutches lately and this is one of my favorites. Simple, but adorable and looks so much harder to make than it is. Bring it on, Vera Bradley.

          Don’t be intimidated by how long this tutorial is – I just went overboard taking pictures. This is VERY step by step for my beginners who are afraid of zippers.

Zippered Clutch

What you will need:

• Outer Fabric (10”W x 12”H)
• Fusible Interfacing (10”W x 12”H)
• Lining Fabric (10”W x 12”H)
• 9” Zipper
• Strip of Fabric for handle (3”W x 12”L)
• The Usual Suspects: thread, pins, sewing machine, scissors

Step 1: Cut all pieces of fabric

Step 2: Press outer fabric, interfacing and liner together in a sandwich with outer and liner right sides out and interfacing in between with fusible side to underside of outer fabric. If you are totally lost, please comment and I’ll help you.

Step 3: Pin zipper face down to top of fabric “sandwich” with outer fabric up.

Step 4: Sew down the zipper along edge.

Forgive my stitching - I had a fight with my sewing machine

Step 5: Fold fabric in half with outer fabric in – pin zipper down – it will look like this: top of zipper abuts outer fabric. Sew.

Step 6: Here you can top stitch – turn the tube inside out and unzip, then use the zipper foot to sew along edge of seam.

Step 7: Turn tube back inside out. Sew one edge closed.

Step 8: Make the handle:

 press in half

open, fold edges to middle and press

 Fold in half, press. Sew along open edge

Step 9: Place raw edge of handle in line with raw edge of opened end of clutch.

 

Step 10: Make sure zipper is open! This step is very important! If you don’t open the zipper, you won’t be able to turn the clutch right side out once you sew the open end closed.

Step 11: Sew open end closed.

Step 12: Turn right side out and press.

Now do a dance. How bleeping cute is that clutch? I know.

If you have any questions or are lost, please comment and I'll help!

Now, go make something :)

<3 Bridget

Want to purchase this clutch? Check out my Etsy page!