Cute as a button vintage clutch

Hello! How is everyone coping in this cold, dark January? If you're anything like me you're ensconced on the sofa in your jammies, with red wine/tea/cake/carbs and refusing to move. Do you find it more difficult to be creative? I certainly do.

In my last post I was moaning that I was lacking in motivation and energy to get any kind of creative activity happening. Life was just work, eat, telly, sleep. Not very inspiring! Well, it's still a bit like that to be honest, maybe I need more fresh air, a long walk and an iron supplement! But, also in my last post I set myself two goals in an attempt to drag myself out of my lethargy and I'm happy to say you don't have to shout at me (yet) because I have now completed one of them:

tah dah!

This is the 'cute as a button vintage clutch' from Pip Lincolne's book Meet me at Mikes. It was easy peasy to make, I faffed around quite a bit but I reckon you could do it from start to finish in about 30 minutes.

Pip suggested you make it out of a vintage teatowel for the outer purse body and a vintage pillow case for the inner, and throughout the instructions she refers to the fabric pieces as teatowel or pillow case. I just used some stash material, so I kept getting confused and having to check back whether the instructions referred to the inner or the outer pieces, in the end I had to go through the pattern and pencil it in. Apart from that I found the instructions easy to follow. The only difficulty I had was stitching a smooth curve around the purse flap - you can see I haven't quite managed it on the right hand side of the above picture! I had improved by the time I got to the other side, so my next attempt will be much better I'm sure. That will teach me to rush things at 11.30pm after a glass of wine! Have a look at Marie's versions, she has made a much better job of it than me. It's a fantastic little bag for make up, I'm not sure I would use it as a 'clutch' - maybe I'm just not a clutch kinda gal! I'd like to experiment, maybe scaling up the pattern a little bit to make it bigger and adding a shoulder strap. The pattern is very simple as you can see in the photo below:

only 3 pattern pieces

So, now at least I have created something this week. I also bought some material for the Rooibos (finally), so I'm hoping to cut that out this week.

Have a lovely weekend.

Cx

Because I'm lacking in motivation...

...I don't know what's happened to me recently - since I had the flu before Christmas my energy levels have been zero. Creativity levels: zilch. I know it's meant to take you out for a good few weeks after symptoms disappear, but this is getting ridiculous. To spur myself on I'm going to set myself two little goals to finish by the end of January. I have no excuses as I have the materials in my stash, and the patterns are either online or in books I already own. If you don't see the results by the 31st please bully me or....worse...unfollow! No please, I jest, don't unfollow I love all your comments.

Ok, so by the end of January I will have completed:

Tilly's bow belt - thanks to Tilly for posting this cute tutorial, it's been in the back of my mind for a few months now and I was reminded about it today by Hayley. By January 31st a bow belt shall be mine!

Image from Tilly and the Buttons

Pip from Meet Me at Mike's "cute as a button vintage clutch".

Blog updates to follow, or you are permitted to shout abuse! Now I've put it in writing here it has to happen.

Cx