Gathered Clutch

My friend Mandy is a paradox. “Work Mandy” is totally put-together, organized, thorough, passionate, and inspiring. “Home Mandy” is a little more… scattered. In fact, it is not at all uncommon for her to be out without a wallet/cash/phone/ID. I knew she had been looking for a little wristlet she could through the above items in and grab – smaller than a purse, but with a strap, unlike her wallet. Her birthday was a couple weeks ago, so I was determined to make one for her.

I had seen this super cute tutorial a couple months ago on a craft blog. I knew that with the simple addition of a wrist strap it would be the perfect little clutch for Mandy. I won’t repost the tutorial (it isn’t mine, after all) but I will show you how mine turned out, and how to add the wrist strap.

The inside: The floral fabric is a divider pocket, the red polka-dot two credit card/ID pockets. The blue is just the lining.

Instructions for adding the wrist strap:

Cut a 2″ x 11″ strip of fabric. Sew along long end, right sides together. Turn tube, and press so that seam is in the middle (not along the side).

On the very last sewing step (where you sew around the edges of the lining and the outer fabric. ) – tuck the strap in between the two outside fabric panels. See my photo below about how NOT to do this:

That’s right. I’m such a fantastic blogger that I took a photo of the wrong way to do it, ripped the seam out, replaced the strap in the correct position, and sewed it all up without taking a photo of the correct way to do it. Awesome.

Anyway, the strap should be tucked inside the fabric here, with just the little end tabs sticking out from the middle. In other words, the opposite of the above photo. Make sure the seam on the strap is turned facing the inside. Then sew it up according to the instructions on the tutorial. You may want to pin the strap in place if you don’t plan to start sewing at that spot.

I want to make another one or two of these to have on hand for gifts. This first one took me about three hours, including choosing the fabrics. I would imagine the next ones would go a bit more quickly, since there would be less seam ripping taking place. At least, theoretically.

As for Mandy, she says she hasn’t left her wallet/cash/phone/ID even once since she’s been carrying it. I’m glad I could be a life-changer for her.