Dancing with a Curvy Clutch

This is another one of Michelle Webster's patterns, the Curvy Clutch. It is sewn up in Little Black Dress by BasicGrey for their quilt market booth. I hadn't used this pattern before and I liked it very much (though it definitely looks better stuffed full of essentials or tissue paper than it does when empty!). I sewed the flap on backwards and had to use my seam ripper but that was completely my error, not due to the pattern!  I was watching for the school bus at the time and was distracted.
 

The clutch has a pocket inside and an optional wristlet strap on the side. I had to include it because I like wristlets and I thought it might be cute if they wanted to hang it in the booth. You can find Michelle's patterns here.

I also created this "Dance" piece for Basic Grey using their monogram chipboard letters. The chipboard is plain white so I started out by covering the fronts with fabric from the Little Black Dress line using spray adhesive. Then I carefully folded the fabric around to the back and secured using tacky glue. This involved a bit of clipping when it came to the insides of the letters. 

I filled in the center of each letter with different contrasting fabrics. Some of the inner letters are pieced and I had fun in a couple of them using a loopy stitch I just discovered on my machine.  You can see it best in the "N."  I backed all the inner letter with fusible interfacing so that they were sturdy and then I glued them to the back of the chipboard with tacky glue.

I embellished the outer boards using lace, embroidery floss, buttons and flowers. To create the stitches, I punctured the chipboard with an awl.

The flowers were made with my Sizzix die called Flowers Layer #9. It was my first time using it and I love it! I think some more hair accessories may be in order.  Or perhaps embellished bags?  Oh the possibilities...