Keyka Lou Envelope Clutches

First off, you'll have to forgive me. These are all in complete reverse order & I'm both too tired & too lazy to bother with it. So tired, in fact, when I went to grab a fresh DDP to put in the fridge & open a cold one, I got the warm one from the case, walked back into the kitchen (I keep the case in one of the bedrooms - don't ask, I don't even know why), and promptly opened the warm one to pour in my glass. Ugh... I should be skipping the drink & going straight to bed, but I've got a little blogging to catch up on, so here goes.

I love these Keyka Lou envelope clutch patterns & have had a lot of fun making them. I picked up some more of her patterns as well & can't wait to try them out. Her instructions are fantastic & come with lots of good pictures. Definitely check them out if you're interested - or just order the finished product from me! :)

If you want to see my progression from where I started to where I am now, go from the bottom up. If you don't care & just want me to get on with it already & see what I've made, then be lazy like I am right now & just read top down like a normal person. :)

Here's the clutch I just finished up, and being the last, it's by far the best of the group. I'm getting the round corners worked out & am really happy with how the button & loop worked out. As you'll see eventually, my first attempt ended up with way too big of a loop of elastic, the button not quite centered with the loop, and the flap coming way too far down on the clutch. I'm happy to be improving.




My first attempt at embroidering a project (I'm not exactly counting the brand the other night). Just some simple stitching around the polka dots on the outside. I'm pretty happy with it. My stitches aren't perfect (it is my first try, after all!), and I kind of wish I had gone with a lighter pink instead of picking one to match exactly. Either way I love the effect though & look forward to more embellishing with embroidery. The top of the flap is still pretty wonky here where I had to slip stitch it closed. The last one (see above) was much better.



The first mini envelope clutch. I just used some of the scraps I had sitting around from the pillow cover bags & the failed cutting for the Origami Imposter bag (which I swear I haven't forgotten about! It's just so much easier to work from actual patterns & instructions instead of just making sense of what's in my head!). The sewing on the flap of this one isn't too terrible, but not great either. I also need to find something other than these little snaps to use as closures, I'm not happy with how they look once they're sewn on & they feel like they're going to pull off the clutch every time I try to unsnap them.



Size comparison between the regular & mini envelope clutches. I'm considering trying to resize the pattern a little to get a mid-size & maybe a bigger one, but that's WAY down on the to-do list.



This one uses the same fabric as I used for my domesticated skirt (speaking of which, I really need to take some new pictures since I got it all hemmed up!). I used some of the fabric to make another skirt for a lady at work who liked mine & thought she might like a matching clutch as well (turned out I was right!). This was the second large clutch I made & it came together much quicker & easier than the first since I had an idea of what I was doing. Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention when I cut the lining fabric & of course all the butterflies ended up on the inside where they can't be seen. Go figure.



I definitely like the magnetic closure on this one & had intended to use it on the one I made today (brown & pink paisley, above), but forgot to add the piece to the pocket & was forced to use the button & loop again (which actually worked about much better than expected).



The very first clutch! My friend's birthday was July 4 & we were meeting them to go out Saturday night. I knew I wanted to make something for her but didn't know exactly what yet & hadn't gotten a chance to actually do it. About 2:00 Saturday afternoon I finished up with another project I was working on & decided I would make her one of these (we were leaving the house at 5:30 & I still had to shower/get ready to go out). It took about 2 hours, including time to cut out the pattern pieces, so I was pretty darn happy with myself.




Like I said before, the elastic on this one got a little long & I made my seam allowances too small, so when closed, then button ended up being practically at the bottom of the bag. I also centered it on the bag, not on the loop closure, so it's a little wonky. Overall, it didn't turn out bad though & I was pretty darn happy for my very first try.



So that's my (reverse) progression through the envelope clutches. I'm in the process of getting fabric cut out for my next project & can't wait to share it!

Until next time...