You are in for a treat! Pamela’s new clutch is going to blow you away with beauty and style. And she’s made a great tutorial for you! – Betz

 

Hi, I’m Pamela. For the past 12 weeks I have been reading all the other great sewing collective posts … and finally now it is my turn!

As soon as I got Betz’s book Present Perfect, I knew that the Pasha Pleated Clutch would be the first thing I would sew from it. I have been going to more social events this year and have “discovered” the clutch. It wasn’t really an accessory that I ever used in the past. I guess I was really more of a purse girl, but lately that changed and I wanted a clutch. And let me tell you, I LOVE this clutch!!!!

 

 

The Pasha Pleated Clutch is just absolutely stunning with the beautiful pleats on the front.

 

 

The original bag design features a snap closure but I decided to make it with a zipper instead. I am just too worried about losing my phone or other stuff, and so generally I prefer zipper closure on purses!

 

 

I followed the instructions in Present Perfect exactly through step 12. This was the first time that I have hand stitched any kind of pleats or anything and my need to be a perfectionist made me redo the first few pleats twice because I had pulled too tight, even though the instructions clearly say “without pulling the stitches tight to the bag.” 🙂 It was a little difficult for me to do the pleats with the raw silk fabric because it frayed a lot and wasn’t as easy to fold in the same way that a cotton fabric would have been. But I loved the texture of it raw silk on the pleats and the contrast I had using it with the embroidered cotton and am glad I choose it.

 

As mentioned, once I got past Step 12, I started the steps to add the zipper to the bag. I used a 9″ zipper for the bag. First I added zipper tabs to the ends of the zipper (I had cut them 1.5″ x 2.5″ and then folded them in). I made a mistake and should have cut the zipper a little bit shorter! The zipper and tabs should be shorter than the band pieces and in my case they were the same. Then I cut 2 band pattern pieces from the lining fabric. I sewed the band pieces and the lining band pieces to the zipper.

 

In the original directions the band is folded over and essentially shortened by doing so. I decided that I would like the band to be about 2″ from fold of zipper to the edge after being sewn, so I ended up cutting a little over 1″ off of the long side of all band pieces. Then I sewed the long edge of the main fabric band to the long edge of the clutch using a 1/2″ seam allowance, and folded the seam allowance towards zipper and top stitched about 1/8” along the band. And repeated for the other side of the main fabric.

 

Then I sewed the pocket to the clutch lining piece following the instructions in the pattern (and let me just note, the pocket is the PERFECT size for my iPhone!) and then repeated the above steps to sew the clutch and band together, including top stitching the seam.

 

Finally I pinned the clutch outside pieces right side together and pinned the lining pieces right side together … and with the zipper open, I sewed around the outside parameter of the bag, leaving an approximately 4″ opening at the bottom of the lining for turning. To finish, I hand stitched the lining closed.

I just can’t tell you enough what a great clutch this is and how many compliments I get on it!

 

 

[image_options image_id=”14427″ align=”none” overlay=”file”][/image_options] 

Find Pamela: Blog, Facebook, Pinterest

 

This post is part of the Betz White Sewing Collective series. Content is written by compensated contributors expressing their own views and opinions.