Fall Felt Series: Felt and Suede Clutch

I hope everyone has enjoyed all of our projects from the Fall Felt Series this year! Shannon and I have had a ton of fun getting creative with felt and coming up with some new ideas for fall outside of the typical felt projects you may see around.

For our last post of the series, I decided to make myself a felt and suede clutch. I'm not typically a clutch kind of girl (lugging 2 kids around means I need a strap on my bags or else I'm bound to leave it somewhere - not that I've done that before *cough cough*), but I gave it a go and I love how it turned out!

This bad boy is big enough to hold my stuff - I made sure to make a few pockets inside to hold everything - and it's great when I'm on the run, or for a date night out sans kiddos (hint hint husband.)

Wanna make one too?

SUPPLIES: 1/2 yard felt - I used 100% virgin wool felt in classic navy from Michael Levine, scraps of suede or leather - I used brown suede from Michael Levine, a rectangle of fabric 6 inches wide by 13 inches long, sewable interfacing slightly smaller than your fabric, leather or suede cording, rotary cutter and mat, chalk or disappearing ink marker, sewing machine and basic sewing supplies.

First you'll need to cut out your pattern pieces. Cut one piece of felt 21 inches long by 13 inches wide, and cut out a triangle from a piece of suede 4 1/2 inches tall by 10 inches wide. You will also need a rectangle of cotton fabric 6 inches wide by 13 inches long and a piece of sewable interfacing slightly smaller than your rectangle.

Attaching Your Pocket:

ONE: fuse your interfacing to the back of your fabric rectangle according to the instructions. Next, use an iron to iron each of the long sides down 1/4 inch.
TWO: measure about 7 inches from the bottom of your felt rectangle and mark with chalk.
THREE: place the bottom of your fabric pocket on the chalk line and pin, then sew across the bottom only to attach.
FOUR: use your disappearing ink marker to draw lines where you want your pockets to be. Sew on top of the lines you drew to make separate compartments.

FIVE: measure 7 inches down on either side and mark with chalk. Make another mark on the top middle of your felt. Draw lines from the top of your felt to the marks you made on the sides. Cut along your lines to make the triangle flap of your clutch.

Adding Suede:

ONE: fold the bottom of your felt up 7 inches and pin the sides. Sew.
TWO: use a rotary cutter and mat to evenly cut your suede into 3 pieces.
THREE: place your suede on top of your felt where desired and mark if needed.
FOUR: carefully and slowly sew your suede onto the front of your bag.

Making The Tassel:

ONE: make a small line on your suede with your chalk or disappearing ink marker and carefully make a slit with scissors or an X-Acto Knife.
TWO: cut a long piece of cording and fold it in half. Thread the loop through the hole and the tails through the loop.
THREE: this is what your cording should look like so far.
FOUR: now to make the tassel, I simply made long loops with the cording until I was happy with it.
FIVE: after you've made as many loops as you want, wrap the tails of the cording around the top of the tassel tightly and knot.
SIX: snip the loops on the bottom of the tassel with scissors to finish.

I love the handy little compartments inside that hold all my stuff!

I hope we've given you some new ideas for things to make with felt, and we'd love to see anything you'd like to show off (past or recent projects)! Post any of your projects you've made using felt on our Facebook wall, and we will feature some of our favorites next week.

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A HUGE thank you to our sponsor, Michael Levine, Inc. for supplying the felt for the Fall Felt Series! As I'm sure you can tell, we absolutely love their products and were so thrilled when they decided to jump on board and partner with us for the series.

Have a great weekend and be sure to check back with us on Monday, because we will be having a little giveaway to celebrate the series!

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!