We have a new clutch!

While I love my little clutch, it just wasn't quite big enough for anything more than the essentials. So when I made the embroidered clutches I made them 5cm larger. But I just couldn't leave the design alone and this is the result.

Same foldover style, now with a detachable wrist strap. The vintage button and pale pink elastic loop keep it securely closed.

Oh, and I added a neat little exterior pocket perfect for keys or a slim mobile.

I love the natural handmade cotton exterior, so summery, but it needed some colour so the lining is a bright modern floral (the exterior pocket is lined with the same material).

A close up of the wrist strap and the lovely handmade cotton. You can just see the edge of the exterior pocket as well.

This is a prototype (so I get to keep it!) and I will be taking for a test run tonight at a new bar. I am so pleased with it. Even though it was a complete nightmare to put together. There is a lot of unpicking when you are putting a new design together. Especially when you keep leaving elements out by mistake (front pocket? D ring?). But it turned out really well in the end and will be a cinch to put together next time.

Do you remember my frustration at having a design idea in the early hours of the morning but not having time to bring it into reality? Well, I managed to carve out enough time to make up these before I left on holiday. Even if it meant not packing until a couple of hours before we left.What? Packing was less important...

If the scheduled posting is working properly then hopefully by now I will have delivered one of these to the birthday girl (as I write I am leaning towards giving her the blue one), and I will be making good use of the other one.

These are the prototypes of one design line for my shop, so shhhhh! They are constructed from sturdy white linen and individually embellished by me and my trusty little sewing machine. The interiors are 100% cotton with an elastic closure over a vintage button. The buttons are selected from a supplier in the Noordermarkt in Amsterdam.

I am besotted with them. They are absolutely my favourite way to dress up an outfit for the weekend. Spacious enough for the essentials (24cm across the bottom) and lovely to hold due to the compressed fleece between the exterior and interior fabrics.

Let me know what you think.

P.S. Apologies for the lighting in the photos. It was late and I have no time to edit before we leave.

Look what came home with me from the market today...

Each of these pieces is 155 x 55 cm and destined to become a bag, with the exception of the yellow fabric which which (hopefully) will become the back of a cushion cover.

On my way back from the market I spied this little hen, who fits in the palm of my hand. I have no idea what I will do with her but I couldn't resist.

All images by me.

I completed another new bag today. This time to hold my stuff at the gym as I work out (bottle of water, ipod, locker key). It turned out ok, slight imperfections but nothing I can't live with.

It gave me the impetuous to drag out another bag which had gone horribly wrong. I had made another fold over clutch in linen with a ribbon detail. From the start it was doomed. The linen was incredibly soft and difficult to handle, from cutting to stitching it was a nightmare. I finally forced it into submission, with wonky stitching only to discover that the ribbon had pulled free from the seam at one end of the bag. I gave up and threw it into my interfacing bin aka where projects go to die. In the back of my head I remembered Amy Karol's advice that if something is not going well, lay it aside and come back to it at a later date.

So I picked it up today and decided to give it one more go before chucking it into the scrap box. I started by unpicking the outer from the inner and restitching the ribbon seam a couple of millimeters higher. Success! Onwards.

I re-pressed everything and pulled the bag back into shape, the stitching was still a little off, the linen stretched every time I touched it but it is now a functioning clutch. Not good enough to give to anyone, but good enough for me to use.

I have no idea what I will do with the rest of that particular linen in my stash, it is just horrible to work with, but I am pleased that I stuck with the bag and brought it around. Pictures tomorrow when the light is better.

I received Amy Karol's book Bend the Rules Sewing from Amazon last Thursday and was determined to make something out of it as soon as possible.

Look what accompanied me to the concert on Friday...

Adorable, no? It was just big enough to fit the essentials (purse, keys , lipgloss, phone) and tucked neatly under my arm for dancing. Perfect.

The creative streak continued over the weekend and I finally hit on a use for the meter and a half of white linen I snagged from the scrap bin in Ikea on my last visit for a whole 0.80 Euros. Following a tutorial linked in the Bend the Rules Sewing Flickr Group I managed to produce six lovely white linen napkins for less than a Euro - not bad going.

The bags and other items I make have been generating a lot of scraps and offcuts lately. I hate to throw things away so I keep anything that might be usable in a scrap box. I thought about using them for the coasters in the book but random surfing led me to this tutorial and I whipped up these coasters quick smart from my scrap box, with no hand sewing required. Incredibly easy and I love that they fit over the base of a wine glass so that wherever you put the glass down it has its own coaster.