Thrifty Thursday

Next week we will start the next sew along  on the Sew News blog. We will be making the Hot Patterns Summer Breeze Top. Here's a little info on the sew along, http://www.sewnews.com/blogs/sewing/2014/06/10/how-to-join-the-hot-patterns-summer-breeze-sew-along/ It's a fairly easy top to make, but there is one little tricky part. Hopefully, I'll be able to walk you easily through the process. To kick off the sew along, I thought I would do a few free Hot Patterns over the next few weeks for Thrifty Thursday. Fabric.com has a number of free patterns and a quite a few of them are really quite nice. Today I chose to do the Crepe Suzette Circular Clutch. The pattern says that it is circular, but if you look at the sketch of the bag, you will see that it is really oblong.   

I made a jacket that you will see next week out of this double-sided linen and silk blend. I had some scraps, so why not make a matching bag?

You can see the bag a little better in this picture.

I made a few minor changes to the bag. I would much rather be able to hang it from my shoulder, so I added a casing at the fold line. The casing is interfaced. The nice thing about a casing like this is that you can wear the bag with a chain or strap, or allow the chain to fall into the inside of the bag and then carry it as a clutch. Sadly, I need to buy some chain so I can't show you the bag with the added chain.

The pattern comes with an interior pocket pattern. I love it when all the pattern pieces are included.

The bag is a very nice size. It will not hold the kitchen sink like many of us try to carry along!!!!, but there is ample room for a wallet, cell phone, and the other necessary items that we need to carry along.

A few of you asked about the clasp when I used it on another project. I've had these for a while, but if you are interested in trying to find them, here's the package information.

*A few construction notes;

I interfaced my fabric with a fusible cotton interfacing. I then fused a layer of fusible fleece to the inside and cut away the seam allowance, only on the fusible fleece. 

I did not use a lining fabric to line my bag as you can see and I did interface the fabric I used to line the bag. So there are 3 layers of interfacing in my bag.

The bag is quick and easy to make. Great for using up the scraps from a project, and would make great gifts, so all in all a very versatile pattern. You can download the pattern here, http://www.pages01.net/fabriccom/Crepe_Suzette_Clutch/

Next Thursday we will have a link party, so make up a Suzette Clutch this week and on next Thursday's Thrifty post, you'll be able to link up your creation. My bag is super basic, but the sky's the limit with this pattern, so be creative. I can't wait to see what you make!!!