I adored the burnished finish of this leather the moment it winked at me from a shelf up high.
Oh yes, this was the one. The perfect fit for my Quirky Diva.
Interestingly the metallic shade in my Diva fabric is silver. But it seems to be warmed by the charcoal accents making this warmer bronze/gold shade a match made in heaven.
This leather's super soft hand made this a clear emotional purchase rather than a considered one... super soft leather is not exactly the best choice for what I originally wanted to be a fairly structured bag. But when a fabric demands to be used, you make it work, dammit!
This is a self-drafted envelope clutch very similar in construction to my Scuba Clutch. In fact, I had to do the same fix to ensure the bag had enough structure.
As you can see, I used a piece of slightly lighter weight black leather to line the back of the clutch, combined with an internal credit card pocket.
I used a very nicely coordinating upholstery thread and machine sewed the seams. I fully intended hand punching and hand sewing the seams and was quite wedded to that idea, even buying the waxed Irish linen thread.
But I was finding it impossible to punch through three layers of leather and time was running out. Canberra Frocktails was but one sleep away and I had no more time to lose!
And this time my Janome completely behaved itself - for the record I used a size 14 leather needle, a regular presser foot and upholstery thread. I did not use a Teflon foot or walking foot and I truly did not have an issue.
I did remember the Wonder Tape! The side seams were "pinned" in place with Wonder Tape for sewing. A much better option to ensure accuracy than the pegs I used last time.
I used a post thingy as a fastener (seriously, I cannot for the life of me remember the name for it!). It works a treat and I like the look.
I love the result. Gold/bronze is a neutral to me and I can see myself getting lots of use from this clutch.
