Today's Tutorial: Placemat Clutches

Here is a tutorial to make the placemat clutch. I provide a few different options for working with different shapes of placemats. Have fun! These are great simple and easy gifts to make for yourself or someone else.

What you need:
-Placemat
-Plastic Canvas (found near the thread/yarn sections in craft stores)
-A piece of felt or other fabric (to cover the piece of plastic canvas in the bottom)
-Velcro, snaps, a vintage pin, etc. (Something to use for keeping the clutch closed)
-Optional: Glue
-And of course, all the things you need to sew and cut :)

Let's first go over how to cut the placemats. The first example will be with a quilted oval shaped one:

1.
Get your placemat

2.
Fold it in half to determine where you want to cut for the "body" of the clutch.

3.
Cut off on one end where you chose.

4.
Serge the edge or just do a v-stitch across to secure the layers of material.

This next cutting option is for a circular placemat:

1.
Get your placemat

2.
Fold it in half

3.
Cut off the edges of one side. These will be the sides of the clutch.

4.
This is what it will look like.

A Rectangular Placemat:
If you have a rectangular one, you don't have to cut it at all. I just folded the corners in at one end and sewed them in place like this one:

You could cut it and just serge or V-stitch the edge if you like. Or you could make a flat clutch like this:

Just fold up one end to be the "body" of the clutch and sew up the sides. (I added some ruffles) All done!

Now for the sewing. To create the boxed bottom corners:

1. Pin sides together right sides facing. Bring the cut off edge to where you like.

2. Sew down the sides, just leave about an 1.5" opening at the bottom (you could do bigger if you want; the bigger the amount left, the larger the bottom of the purse will be.

3. You are going to take the bottom of the opening on the bottom and put the middle up to where you just sewed. See above pictures. This will create the box corners.

(Hint: You might have to lay the sides down like this when you sew if they are giving you problems. If not, just lay them to one side).

4. Sew straight across the bottom (the straight part you just created).

5. It will look like the first picture. Then trim the edges. You could finish it off if you like (serge or V-stitch).

6. Turn right side out. You will now have a box bottom for your clutch.

Creating the plastic canvas insert:

1. Measure how wide the bottom of your clutch is. It should be the same length of the opening you left at the bottom (Ex: 1.5")

2. Measure how long your clutch is.

3. Get your plastic canvas (available in craft stores near needlework/thread/yarn stuff).
Cut out the size of what you just measured.

4. Cut a piece of felt or fabric that is bigger than the piece of plastic canvas you just cut. You are going to sew it on.

5. Start by pinning the felt on the short sides first. Sew them on. ***PLEASE NOTE: USE A HEAVY DUTY NEEDLE JUST IN CASE IT HITS PLASTIC AND USE A LARGE STITCH. GOING SLOW TO WILL PREVENT MISHAPS. If you are worried about doing this, you could just glue it on, or hand stitch it on.)

6. Now fold the long felt sides over and sew them on.

(Picture of the top)

7. Glue it in. I used fabric glue. You could sew it on, or if you are really ambitious, cover the whole piece of plastic canvas and make it removable.

Keeping it closed:

Being the lazy crafter I can be, I just glued snaps on for it to be closed. I covered the top one with a piece of felt with a hole in it. You could sew these on as well, or you could use Velcro, or just use a vintage pin to keep it shut (see below).


Now I just have to figure out who will get which ;)
Happy Sewing!

Teachers Pet Cardi, Simple Tee and Poppy Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Teachers Pet Cardi, Simple Tee and Poppy Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

A Message in the Cookies

Next time you make cookies, why not create a little message for someone (or yourself?)

Before:

After:

Mmmmmm......so yummy!

By popular demand, I will have a tutorial up for three different place mat clutch/purses by Sunday night :)

I Heart Simple

I heart things that look simple and are simple to make. What about you? I have another Christmas present down!

Made from a placemat. I love how most of the work was already done for me. I almost have two more placemat clutches made as well. We have this Dillard's clearance center near us (it's amazing) and they had stocked up on their napkins and placemats. I had a ball and bought most at only $1.50 each! They were originally a lot more than that.

I added a piece of that plastic stuff with the holes in it (at the craft stores, anyone know the technical name?) to the bottom to make it sturdy. I covered it in fabric first though, then just glued it in.

A Big Brother and a Little Sister

My friend has a little boy who turned one recently (or will soon, I know it's in August sometime lol). She is also expecting a little girl this October. I figured I would get presents for them done all at one time. I made these after falling in love with the one Dana made.

It's just freezer paper stenciling and a felt heart sewed on. I really have fun doing this.

I also had these two whimsical panda bears who needed owners, so I figured I would send those as well. They were fun to make. I love fleece.

And of course, every little girl needs some sort of big flower hair bow for pictures and what not, so i made a flower clip for little Bailey as well.

Now, off to work on my task list for the day :)

It's Almost September!

And you know that means that Christmas is going to be here before you know it, so I've already begun my handmade Christmas gifts. The first finished project are these flower clips:

I found the flowers (originally they were all one color with a middle part) at Garden Ridge for $.23 each because they were "spring" clearance. I took them apart and changed them up some. Then I added a rhinestone in the middle, and on two others I added a bunch more rhinestones all over. I had some small petal leftovers, so I also made four clips for two babies in the fam. Last year my goals of making presents was only about 50%, but this year I plan to hit all of my goals and be done early so when the holidays roll around I won't be stressed about it.

Here are some other things we've been up to lately as well.

Taking advantage of all the fully stocked stores since school is starting

I painted my little ones toes for the first time. I used this nail polish by Sally Hansen that literally dried in like 10 seconds.

I put her to work by helping me clean off our ever growing collection of seashells. I need them to make some Christmas presents you know ;)

Share Your Flair

Lindsay at That's So Cuegly! gave me a blog award called Share Your FlairShare 3 Fabulous Facts about you!

Here we go...
1. My favorite color is yellow!
2. I have an obsession with sweet tea (it's pretty bad, in fact I'm drinking some right now!) and coke slurpees
3. This past year I became an SUV driving mom (lol...now I don't feel left out :)

Share the award with 3 BLOGS that you think SHARE their FLAIR worthily!

1.
2.
3.

Ruffles and Stuff

(for some reason I couldn't load down the header, so here is a pic of a refashion on her blog)

Find me here today....

Hey everyone :) I've been enjoying my time with my mom and have been giving our house a massive cleaning (especially my craft room!). I'm trying to get more organized. I'm just in that kind of mood, so I'm going to ride it until it ends. Today I'm guest blogging on UCreate. It is a great blog by Kari "...where you can find the trendiest craft tutorials from the hottest crafters on the web!"
She asked me to do a tutorial, so this is what I'm sharing:

Petal Bags Galore

It was inspired by this J Crew backpack:

Head on over and check it out. This will be my tutorial for the week as well because I haven't had enough time to do another one.