Knock Off Clutch Bag

Hello everyone! Its been really quiet in here. We're (AH) half way through Ramadan and its been good so far. The weather is fine, weekends seem to start on Thursdays..as there are so many iftar partys lined up. There is more goodness to come later in the month on Eid! There's a wave of Eid collections by all big Pakistani labels. We, expats can only flip through online catalogs and sigh and drool and 'like' them on facebook..OR like me go on a thrifting trip down in your own basement to work something up.

 Let me be honest, I could have found a prettier and a finer clutch bag anytime in any good shop here in Germany. This was just a trial project or better put..a fun way to reuse things that were about to go to the recycle bin anyway.

 Here are the old (new) clothes that I thought would be useful. I dismantled them, taking the trim off a neckline, an edging off another, some embroidery, a touch of green and gold to match my eid dress. All this was what I already had.

• Pre-baby wardrobe
• An old dusty purse
• A round 1 euro placemat!
• Glue
• Scraps of fabric, ribbon or any other embellishments.

I chose this old black purse that I had and pulled the straps off.

I used a rich grey fabric from an old shirt my mother had stitched for me. A thin layer of adhesive spray on the purse and I simply wrapped the fabric on the purse.

 For the corners I tucked them in and used hot glue to secure them.

To prepare the 'flap' of the clutch..I'm a lil embarrassed to reveal but while decoding the Chinyere bag.. first thing that came into my mind was the round placemat I had on my table for everyday use...and guess what it worked just fine. I trimmed it to size, and covered it with fabric.

To fill it up I started hot gluing the trims and embroideries that I plucked from my stash.

More glue to attach the flap on the back side of the purse..and I was done.

I added more color and a personal vibe to my inspiration.

There, I made a Tweed Clutch Bag worth 50 Dollars in store. Mine cost next to nothing..not bad.