Hello, my name is Rachel and I am a purseaholic.
I know I'm not alone.
I'm too embarrassed to admit how many different bags, purses, and wallets I own.
But I just cant stop lusting after something new!
Working at a luggage store for three years was no help. It was just fueling my addiction while also giving me an unnecessary understanding and appreciation for a good YKK zipper ifyaknowhaddamean.
Part of my addiction is that I have to have good the shiz. In the beginning I didn't have much taste. I went for quantity of cheap trends rather than everlasting quality. Unfortunately I got to know what a good quality leather looks and feels like and I couldn't look back.
Sadly I don't have the budge for this type of luxury.
So what's a girl to do?
Lately I have been seeing lovely leather clutches all over the interwebs.
Par exemple:
Le sigh...Celine. Waaaaay too pricey
Oooh Claire Vivier...Slightly more reasonable in price, but c'mon. I'm in grad school people!
On several of the blogs I read people were like "oohh hurray we found a solution!"
It's $50.00.
It's real leather.
But for some reason I'm always kinda "meh" about AA. Plus I'm too lazy to drive out to the store and I hate paying for shipping. I just hate it.
So I decided to take matters into my own hands!
I googled that shit.
With the help of this tutorial. I made my very own custom pouch.
And you can too!
Ready? M'kay.
Step 1: Buy Supplies
I went to Joann's and rummaged through the clearance area and found this light grey pebbled "leather" its not leather at all. It's vinyl. But it looks and feels pretty good to me!
It was $3/yd I got a half yd but thats way more than you'll need. But I figured I'll have extra if I screw up or extra to make some gifts if I succeed!
Then I got a half yd of cotton fabric in a nice neon green for my lining. I'm really into neon. You will be too. It's going to be all the rage this summer. Promise.
Grab some matching or contrasting thread
and a 14in zipper. I like the exposed metal zippers. I was hoping for a bright blue but they didn't have one. They had grey but I wanted the contrast again. I thought about red but it kinda clashed. So I went black. I spend a lot of time in fabric stores.
Step 2: Sew it
The dimensions provided on the AA website for their version is 9 1/4in x 14in
So go ahead and cut two pieces of each of your fabrics 9 1/2 x 15 (duh the extra is for your seam allowance).
Now we make the sandwich.
Pin and Sew.
Please refer to the tutorial I mentioned above. It really lays everything out waaay better than I ever could.
Also, please learn how to use your zipper foot. I broke a needle. Which makes your machine make a horrific sound. Soooo I recommend you don't do that.
But other than that it was suuper easy.
Sew all the way around making sure to leave a hole in your lining. Clip the corners!
Turn it out.
Sew the lining closed
Tadaaaaaaaa!
I wanted my neon thread to show so I did a top stitch on either side of the zipper.
It gives it a polished look and makes everything lay nice and flat.
Then I played around with some scraps and made a nice little zipper pull. It's kinda sloppy so I might cut it off and try again.
Next time I would try to add the fabric at each end to cover the zipper ends and give it a cleaner look. But other than that It came out exactly as I imagined.
Step 3: Use it
And there you go! Now you too can have your fashiony clutch for a FRACTION of the price.
No joke.
I spent $13.00.
That's it!
Plus I have material to make more! The zippers are really the most expensive part.
Should I really just stop there? I really like this look
The Celine bag I mentioned earlier has a similar style.
As I was googling that shit I came across this tutorial:
She painted one of the $50 leather ones!
Brave girl.
But mine is pleather... I wouldn't feel so bad if I screwed it up... I could always make another...hmmm...
Maybe I'll go pick up some neon green paint...
So will you make one?
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