It's the last day of May and I just made it for my Amy Butler Sew-Along's May bag. The first thought that came to my mind when I was going through the instructions was:
I hate the handle.
The second thing thought was:
It's gonna cost a lot of fabric to make those pleats!
First of all, I don't like handles which look unbalanced. I just bothers me. But in the spirit of the sew-along.... Second of all, when I took a look at the amount of fabric required for the pleats, I almost fainted. For the SMALL clutch alone, you need 2 pieces of 8" X 54" of fabric.
All the "in the spirit of the sew-along" couldn't convince me to invest that much fabric in one clutch which if you look at closely is really just another zip pouch. So I made an Unpleated Clutch.
Seriously, without the pleats, the clutch looks boring. I'm almost embarrassed to post the photos!
This is what it looks like without the handle.
I just want to lop off the handle!
Is it just me? Sorry if I come across as rather negative about this "clutch". Maybe it's just my fabric choice? If I ever make this clutch again, I'll first of all, bury the handle in the deepest ocean and secondly, do something about those crazy pointy ends.
I had really wanted to make this bag but the fabric needed turned me off of it. Especially since you won't need so much of it once you cut off the strips to pleat.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... I quite like your bag.... I wouldn't like to use that much fabric for a simple clutch either!
ReplyDeleteI like how your's turned out! I figured out you can easily hide seams in the pleats, so I was able to get both pleated panels for the small clutch out of 3 fat quarters, with a bit left over. That didn't seem quite as bad (or wasteful!) to me. I absolutely agree with you on the handle & pointy corners. Although I don't think the corners look quite as odd on the pleated version, not sure why though.
ReplyDeleteYay comments are working!
ReplyDeleteI was looking at that bag, and it's not bag, but I know what you mean - I wouldn't have used all the fabric and pleats either. What if you added a big crochet flower at the base of the strap? That might be nice.