08 June 10
Wedding Clutches
Not mine, obviously. But I’m so proud of them, and so happy to have something new to show off, that I had to put up even a crappy picture of one.
This bag was made for a friend and is a custom order. The fabrics represented are in the bridesmaids dresses, so they will be a bit matchy at the wedding, but afterward, I could see someone using this clutch with a casual to semi-dress outfit.
Starting on Saturday I started cutting out scrap fabric and mocking it up. I tried it in three different sizes before I got something that seemed to have the right balance. I knew the width I wanted the center panel to be. Any narrower and the buckle just looked out of scale. Any wider and the buckle seemed ineffective. With that as my constant design-wise, I played around to find the perfect height of the bag. I wanted something that fit right in a hand, but that could also be held by the corner.
There is a zipper under the flap to keep all of the contents truly secure, so the gold-tone buckle is purely for show, but I really, really like it. I’ve had them for years and always imagined they’d be on a clutch but couldn’t quite get them to work. I think this solves that problem.
When I made the prototype bag I was using a faux-suede for the body (the solid red part) and a polyester satin for the flap and the stripe. It came out great, or so I thought. I like the prototype bag enough to use it myself, actually. But, I took the same measurements and went to make the bag out of the Thai silk and linen light-weight canvas print. And that’s when I realized I’d made an error in judgment. Faux suede + polyester satin ≠ Thai silk + canvas-weight linen. Which means that the measurements for the zipper, the height of the flap, the corner curve angle. the placement of the buckle, and the measurements of the lining weren’t matching up. Which means I pretty much spent two days making a pattern, just to spend today making it again and then making 3 complete bags.
But in the end, despite my lapse in judgment (and we won’t talk about the 2 hours I spent ripping stitches because I was lacking in enough fabric to start over) I’m really happy and proud of how these came out and I think the woman giving them as gifts will like them as well. The wedding is in a few weeks, so I’ll hopefully get to show off how they look in person. There’s one bridesmaid in particular that I’m really hoping likes it. She’s kinda girly retro punk-rock and I think this may be rock-a-billy enough to make her happy.
Comments
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These are absolutely fabulous!! You are an artist with a great eye.
— Pam Zanders on Jun 8, 10:33 am
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