I am so honored to be featured in the Spring Edition of Haute Handbags along side some of my favorite bloggers and artists!

Please enjoy the following tutorial for the:

shabby chic numbered zipper clutch tutorial

Grab a bunch of your favorite fabric scraps that are at least 10 inches by 6 inches. Mix textures, colors and weights for fun variety. You will also need:

trim/lace scraps

fusible lightweight interfacing (I like Pellon)
a 10 inch zipper

Heat N Bond Light

buttons/brads/gems

Make the number:

Using Word, print out a number 1. I used Gloucester MT font sized at 300. Feel free to play with your fonts but I find the simple ones are the best as you will have to stitch around all those little curves! 

Cut:

2 exterior pieces

2 lining pieces

4 interfacing pieces

Press the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric

Now comes the fun part!!! Pull together several pieces of lace, trim, and even a brad/button/or gem and play with the layout until you love it! Don't be afraid of unfinished edges, messy lines, and imperfections. The joy of shabby chic is the personality and uniqueness that comes with the imperfections. 

 Once you've found a layout you like, stitch it all into place and trim off the extra lace edges. You can always add more if the mood strikes you.

Now for the zipper!

If this is still confusing check out the link here.

I love how clear Florence of Flossie Teacakes explains making a zipper pouch. This tutorial helped me sooo much!

Unzip the zipper about 3/4 of the way.

Pin so that the right sides of the exterior and the right sides or the lining are together. Make sure the fabric part of the zipper is folded together facing toward the exterior fabrics! It will look completely wonky if you don't do this!

Stitch all the way around leaving a 3-4 inch opening at the bottom of the lining fabrics. Reinforce where the you stitch over the zipper. Trim off the extra zipper ends close to the seam.

Square the corners

Pull all through the opening in the lining then either machine stitch or hand stitch the opening shut and push into the pouch.

 DONE!