Since the quarantine started I’ve been making an effort to  balance my love of trying new things with the need to use up older materials from my stash. To that end, this week I took on a new project – a clutch purse to match my padded headband – and used up some older materials to create a matching obidome, which are worn on a obijime as a decoration.

I bought some clutch box frames from Alibaba over the winter, as a Christmas present to myself, thinking I would do some fancy embroidery for them. My Mom gifted me this beautiful blue and white striped upholstery fabric in February, which I used to make my headband – but which I still have a ton of – which made me think it was a great time to break out the clutch frames and make a go of it.

The metal frame of the clutch is separate from the plastic box shells. You basically cover the shells with fabric, then glue them into the metal frame. For adhering the shells to the frame I used e6000, but for adhering the fabric to the shells I used professional grade double sided adhesive sheets – the same ones I used to construct my no-sew pillbox hat.

I also created flaps for the interior sides of the clutch from the interior lining fabric, which was a bit trying, but next time I think I might skip that step. I’m thinking I want to turn one of my rectangular clutches into a cute case for my needles and sewing tools, and I would prefer that it be able to open flat.

The lining material I used it comes from  remnants I inherited from my grandmother. I debated a bunch of different patterns before going out to the garage to see if I had anything else, and finding this peachy pink and white floral number.

I was originally going to use the single butterfly on the back of the clutch, and do a more elaborate design with lilies for the front. But, after making an attempt at the lily design, not liking how it was going, and turning it over in my mind for an evening, I decided to leave the back plain and use the single butterfly on the front. I created the butterfly by layering two wing shaped piece of organza onto the fabric, tacking it in place with quilt basting spray, and stitching around the wing design with a simple running stitch.

Once I had the organza secured, I used the running stitch as a guide over which to create the satin stitching used to outline the butterfly wings. To give the body of the butterfly a little dimension, I did a chain stitch in the shape of the body, then went over the chain stitches with satin stitching. The interior of the front wing and antennae are also running stitches. Organza frays easily, so to prevent that I also went over the design with a little bit of fabric glue.

When I finished adhering the shells to the frame, I realized that there was a bit of a gap between the frame and the fabric covered shells on the outside of the purse. So, I took some peachy looped trim and glued it to the fabric along the edge of the frame, tucking the bottom loops into the frame as I went. For this, I used my ever-trusted E6000.

The obidome I made using the same blue and white striped fabric, rhinestones, and holofilm butterflies I used for my headband, along with chipboard, chiyogami paper, a metal name plate, and an obidome converter that I’ve had in my stash for years.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time describing the crafting method for this project here. Sorry! Instead I’m going to do a live demonstration of how this project was made on my Twitch channel later this afternoon, which you can find here.

Anyhoo, that is all I’ve got for now. I hope you’ll join me later today, and most days from here out, on Twitch where I’ll be hanging out with Hissabelle and making art!