Frame clutches for my beautiful bridesmaids!

After striking out online in the search for the perfect clutch for my bridesmaids (who are wearing navy cotton cady j crew dresses), I finally gave up and just decided to sew them myself!  Unfortunately though, I'm total dummy and did not take photos during the sewing process, but I did follow these wonderful instructions found at U-handbag: http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2006/12/purse_frames_de.html

I pretty much followed the instructions word for word, except I used 8 inch frames (found here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=43216966) and sewed grosgrain ribbon on before the outside layers were sewn together.

I used a grey/putty colored linen (though, in retrospect, maybe not such a good idea- it wrinkled very easily), heavy sew-in stabilizer, navy blue satin lining, two widths of ivory grosgrain ribbon, and this glue, which is the shiz.  Here are the finished products (please excuse the awful pictures)

and now each purse:

this one is my fav (but the ribbon tucking was a pain in the BUTT):

Happy sewing!

Thanks! :) I squared off the corners like Lisa did in the tutorial.  However, I got a little lazy on the lining and didn't bother measuring.  I figured it didn't really matter since it was all tucked inside anyway.  I found the stabilizer at JoAnn's.  They keep it behind the counter at the cutting table and you just need to be specific about the kind of stiffness you need.  I said "uhh...I need something stiff....for a purse...help?".  She said "fusable or sew-in?"  and then I had an image of a hot iron/melting fabric/temper tantrum disaster and chose the sew-in. 

Good luck!!

Thank you, TP to Bee!!

To create the pleated ruffles, I simply folded the ribbon onto itself into a pleat and then pinned each and every pleat (that took a longgg time).  Then I ran one side of the ribbon through the sewing machine on a zig-zag pattern.  I made sure to pleat and sew the ribbon so that the finished pleats extended 2x the height of the bag so that I could just cut it in half and sew it to both sides of the flat, middle ribbon (I hope that makes sense!).  The other ruffle was simply done by running the ribbon through the machine on a straight stich and then pulling the end of a thread to gather the ribbon.  It took some time to evenly distribute the ruffles along the length of the ribbon, but if you work gingerly, the thread shouldn't break (like it did on me).  To hide the ugly, unfinished end of the ruffles, I sewed a thin ribbon over the top edge after I had pinned and sewed the ruffly ribbon down.

And I bought a yard and a half of the linen, the satin lining, and the interfacing, but to be honest, I would have had more than enough with a yard of the linen and lining.  I totally forgot that they were 60in bolts! Doh!

Those are super cute, i am totally making them for my girls!!! thanks for the glue tip too, i was thinking of that stuff, it works soo good!