Recycling a dress to make a messenger bag for the three year old might be pleasing on one level, but last night's creative effort on my part was a purely selfish just for the heck of it make for me.
At the moment, I am teaching some lovely ladies how to make clutches. Everything about the process is a pleasure to me. Even if the beautiful fabrics they bring with them onto the course only serves to tempt me into more shopping.
But, fun as it is to introduce other people into the joy of making things, one reason I limit the amount of evening teaching I do is so that I can save enough time to enjoy the making process first hand. I know I am feeling less new born induced sleep deprived now, as I am increasingly getting the itch to make stuff again.
This clutch pattern was one I had logged on my mental list of things to make ages ago. The design is from Lisa Lam, and the instructions were included in a Mollie Makes magazine from a few months ago. A long term fan of her patterns - and shop - I'd bought a couple of the frames a while back, with the intention of having them ready to go when the urge to make something nice came to me.
The sparkly scarf pin on the front of the clutch came from a local shop in Bedford, called Rose Tinted Vintage. Another reason why my home town is worth a visit, should you be near enough to contemplate one, as there is always something to catch your eye in that shop, whatever your style. I had bought the scarf pin about a year ago, thinking it would finish off a silk bag of some sort. I am going to call the butterfly silk used for the lining vintage, on the grounds I have had it for ages and it was originally given to me by an elderly lady called Barbara, and she had no doubt had it festering in a cupboard for many years before that. The green silk was given to me by a nice lady called Anne, who came on a course last year and was generous enough to share after my gushing about it. Last night was the night that everything came together in my head and the little clutch you see here was born. I love it!
I was going to just sew the scarf pin straight onto the finished clutch, but it didn't look right - the oval shaped yo-yo seemed to provide just the right lift and I am really happy with the way it has all come together.
The instructions and pattern were quite easy to use. The only fiddly bit was squishing the purse into the metal frame without getting glue in all the wrong places. Squint and you'll notice some glue still on the frame, that I didn't get to before photographing the project. I plan to make another one of these clutches - but in a brightly printed cotton for a daytime look.
And I have my friend and fellow school mum Lisa to thank for the pictures - she was kind enough to indulge me by being my photographer as I posed whilst we were waiting for our daughters to come out from their classrooms at the end of the school day. We got some strange looks, as some probably wondered what on earth we were up to. The embarrassment I am willing to put myself (and others) through for a picture...
As to when I will use this little beauty - who knows! Anyone fancy coming to babysit for me so I can dust off some heels and go out and dance around it?!
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