Serendipity

Ever since Andrea made her gorgeous leather clutch back in July, I've been dying to make one of my own. This week, I finally got a chance to order some purse frames. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided I should make one up in fabric before investing in leather. So on Friday, I did some stash diving.  I found a lot of cool stuff in there that I'd forgotten about!  I pulled out everything I thought might be useful for a clutch or its lining, and ended up choosing some really thick felted wool left over from a skirt I'd made at least ten years ago.

Yesterday morning, although the frames hadn't arrived, I went ahead and made my pattern pieces and cut out my fabric and lining.  For the lining I chose an ochre brocade left over from a purse I'd made probably eight years ago:

Then I sewed it all up so that when the frames did arrive, all I'd have to do is glue it on.  It was much quicker and easier than I'd thought it would be.  As I was heading toward the ironing board to give it one final press, the doorbell rang - it was the mail lady with my frames!  What perfect timing!!  I glued my purse to the frame, and let me tell you - waiting 24 hours for the glue to cure is the hardest part of making this clutch!  But, patience is a virtue:

Hurray!  This turned out so much better than I was expecting!  It was a little tricky getting the purse to stay inside the channels of the frame because it wasn't quite thick enough.  If I'd had the frame with me when I made the purse, I would have included some interfacing.  So I'm really hoping the glue will hold.  And I wasn't quite sure what kind of glue to use, so I used a combination of barge cement and E-6000.

I love magenta and ochre together!

I bought my frames from this Etsy seller.  I got 5 frames for $25 - pretty reasonable I think.  These are the 8" x 3" frames.  I like it that she allows you to mix and match colors.  I ordered 3 antique brass frames and two silver.

Now I can't wait to go get some leather and make some more!