Hello! Welcome back to another episode of Make, Thrift, Buy – the show where you send
in accessories or clothing that you’ve seen on the internet, and then I try and recreate
it, through a combination of crafting or thrifting or sometimes – both!
Today’s challenge is this super cute fluffy purse/clutch thing, suggested by Anonymous.
Now I don’t know why Anonymous didn’t want to leave their name, but you did direct
me straight to the German Asos website so I know that you are at least from Germany
or speak German! Detective skills. Also ASOS is where the original purse can
be found, but it seems to be perpetually out of stock.
So I thought that I would try and recreate it for myself.
So, let’s begin!
So – fluffy fabric. My old arch nemesis. I bought this fake fur fabric for new, from
spotlight, because I didn’t want to chance another fluffy blue shorts incident by using
some unknown thrifted material. But, it does appear that any fluffy fabric
just… goes everywhere .
DID YOU SEE THAT?!
Seriously?? Come on. Before I've even started, I’ve pulled off
enough fluff to make a small animal.
ANYWAY – once I got over that, I started actually thinking about the project. I decided
that I wanted to make a clutch, rather than a purse like the ASOS one. I also decided
that I wanted both sides of the clutch to be furry, unlike the ASOS purse where one
side is this leathery material.
So, turning the fake fur over to the wrong side, I drew out two identical rectangles
with the dimensions 12 inches by 10 inches.
Then I cut them out – and check it out, my mum got me this rotary cutter for Christmas
which OH MY GOD makes cutting things SO much easier. LOOK. AT. THAT. So easy. Of course,
scissors will work just fine if you don’t have a rotary cutter yourself.
And there’s my two rectangles that will make up the outer part of the clutch.
Now, for the inner lining. I also cut out 2 identical-sized rectangles with some lining
fabric. And these are the 4 pieces that I will need.
The next thing that I did was to sew on some googly eyes. I found these googly eyes that
have this plastic loop on the back so that I can handsew them on instead of just gluing
them, which wouldn’t be as durable. So, on one piece of outer fabric, I figure
out where I want the eyes to go and then I sew them on by hand, using a needle and a
thread. To sew them on I go up through the back of the fabric, through the loop at the
back of the googly eye and back down, and then up and down a couple more times to secure
the eye in place, and then I tie a couple of knots in the back to make one big knot
so that it’s really secure, and then cut off the excess thread.
Then, I grabbed a zipper. And this zipper is thrifted. The most important thing about
this zipper, though, is that it needs to be longer than the side of the clutch where you’re
inserting it. So, my zipper needed to be longer than 12 inches. It’s actually way longer
than that, but that doesn’t matter because I’ll be cutting it shorter later on.
Now, to sew the clutch together, first I lay down the lining fabric, then the zipper - right
side up, and then the fake fur, right side DOWN.
And I make sure that the top edges of all three are aligned.
Then, I pin the fabrics and the zip to hold them in place, and I’m going to sew across
here. However, when I'm sewing I’m going to flip
it over so that the foot of the sewing machine will be gliding along the lining, rather than
the rough underside of the fake fur.
While sewing, I use a straight stitch and a zipper foot. A zipper foot isn’t necessary
in this step, but it will make life easier! Then, going really slowly so my sewing machine
doesn’t freak out, I sew all three layers together.
When I’m done with that, I flip everything over so that the right side - the fluffy side
- of the outer fabric is facing outwards. I also temporarily pin the lining to the outer
fabric just to keep them out of the way in the next step.
And the next step is to: repeat the same thing again!
I lay down the lining fabric, then the zipper (with everything attached to it) right side
up, and the last fake fur piece right side DOWN. I make sure that they're all lined up
at the top edge, and then I pin them together, and sew across the top like this, but along
the lining side again.
At this point, the clutch is looking like this!
Then I half unzip the zipper, and then I fold the fabrics over so that the two lining pieces
are on one side, and the two fake fur pieces are on the other side, both right-sides together.
Then, I pin the zipper so that it’s folded towards the fake fur pieces, cut off the excess
zipper pieces, and THEN, I sew using a straight stitch around most of the outsides like THIS.
Make sure that you take extra care while sewing over the zipper. When I got up to the zip,
I took my foot off the pedal and I used the handwheel instead, to make sure that my needle
wouldn’t hit the zip and snap.
Make sure you're leaving a gap in the lining fabric - you don't want to sew it totally
closed at this point.
When I had done that, I pulled everything through the hole in the lining, and then
through the open zipper!
I also pushed out the corners of the outer fabric, and then I pulled the
lining out one last time so that I could sew the gap closed, like this.
And – that’s it you guys! I'm done!
So - How Did I Gooooo?
[music plays]
So can you make this for yourself? [scissors snipping sound effect]
Yes you can! Now obviously you don't have to make it as big and, like, clutch-sized
as I did, you can make it smaller and more purse-sized like the one on ASOS. All you
have to do is adjust your measurements according to how big you want it to be, just remembering
to leave about an inch or so for seam allowance. And, as worried as I was about the fluffy
fabric going everywhere, once it's all sewed together and there's no raw edges, the fluff
actually stays on the bag, and it doesn't go everywhere, so, that's a good thing! And
it's super snuggly and nice and I really like it. I also discovered that if you turn it
upside down and unzip it, it looks like it has a mouth! Which is another great thing
about it. As always, if you attempt to make this, or you try out any of my other tutorials,
then please tag me on instagram with the hashtag #diyannika, because I really love seeing what
you guys come up with - it makes me really happy! I hope you're all having a good day,
and I'll see you all for my next video. Bye!