A Clutch Experiment

This cold weather is good for something, at least!

Yesterday, I was inspired to make myself a small, stylish, black leather clutch purse when I realised I don’t have one that’s not super fancy and you’d only take to a wedding. Since the weather is getting colder, I need a small bag that suits the dark winter days ahead. So I went to my bin of scraps and found a chopped up leather skirt that would do quite nicely. I used that for the outside of the purse, and then took an old duffle bag and cut out the stiff faux leather bottom of it for the inside. This will help it keep it’s shape and not just flop around.

If you click on the above pic to see a larger version, you can see the old stitching from the skirt on the bottom edge of the back here. I really like this detail – it tells the story of what once was!

Its overall size is 9 5/8″ wide x 7″ tall and fits an iPhone 6s+ standing up inside quite comfortably, with lots of room for a small wallet and lipstick. Its swivel lock closure was taken from a recycled handbag.

I’ve used brass rivets to fasten it all together, since I don’t have a leather sewing machine and doing it by hand is out of the question. The edges are clean but aren’t super slick and refined as if it were sewn, but it still looks great and will suffice for my needs.

I’m not sure that I want to venture into the realm of bag making just yet, but this was a fun project and I think I’ll get lots of use out of this piece! We’ll see what kind of response I get when I take it out with me.

Tell me what you think in the comments section below!