The Bella Clutch

I made a lot of progress on Sam's quilt last week. By last Friday I had completed the quilt top and  did the basting. Then I made a dress and a clutch purse because I am nervous about quilting this quilt.

The quilt is 60x72 which is big for my tiny little machine. I am worried it is going to get stuck in the throat of my machine or I won't be able to maneuver it. I do not have any more unfinished projects so tomorrow I will start on the quilting.

While I was stalling on the quilting I made the Bella Clutch, a pattern by Jennie and Clara, a mother and daughter, who blog at Clover and Violet. i love their blog! It is a happy space full of colorful, sweet projects. They have a lot of different tutorials along with an Embroidery 101, Sewing 101, and Zippers 101. It is easy to spend a lot of time  reading up/brushing up over at their blog. Jennie and Clara also have a shop where they have all kinds of patterns to make bags: from mini bags and clutches to travel bags, shoulder bags, clutches, and many more.

Fairly recently they released a free pattern PDF (which I love and appreciate!! It is so nice to print the directions) called the Bella clutch. You can find the directions here. This past weekend I made one of my girls a dress and the pattern included a shoulder bag pattern too. Instead of making the shoulder bag I decided to make the Bella Clutch since I had been wanting to make it since I saw it. 

The clutch came together easily and quickly. I think I have made 3 zip pouches in my life so not much experience in the bag making department. I found the instructions for the zip tabs to be especially useful. What I thought might be a tricky part of the pattern turned out to be simple and straight forward. The inside has some cute pockets that can be customized to hold credit cards, keys, tissue, or lip gloss. I liked working with the D-ring and swivel clip and thought the hardware were fun little touches. Most importantly my daughter loves it. When I finished making it, it went from my hands to her hands and she hasn't put it down yet. Now the other three girls want one too, so I may end up being a clutch making pro by the time all is said and done. It is Wednesday so I am linking up with the new and improved linky party at Freshly Pieced. There is so much inspiration there every week!!