It has potential to be great...

Doug's friend's birthday is today, and I've been working on a present for her.  It's taken me two days, and sadly I was unsuccessful.  It's just not presentable.  I'll let you have a look see on what I mean.  I pretty much combined this concept...



Placemat clutch



 plus



Wedding clutch

  Easy enough huh?  So I started with this.  

front/back

Then I sewed as said in the tutorial.

So what's wrong with it?

I had to hand sew the opening where you're supposed to turn it inside out.  Not pretty!  I need more practice.

I also didn't like the blue border all the way around.  It looks really weird in person.

Lesson learned.  The type of fabric really matters!  Keep that in mind when you sew too.  I used a really thick canvas exterior with a thin suede for the interior.  Maybe, the problem was there were two layers of thick canvas?  When I turned it inside out, the seam was too wide for the exterior.  Weird, but I think that's what happened.  I'm going to salvage this by taking the two pieces apart.  I WILL try again.  Lots of potential with this idea.  I'm just an amateur sewer.  Maybe she'll get it as an X-Mas present.  =)

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Seriously, you get what you pay for!  This $50 machine has me pulling out hairs.  It jams all the time.  =/  I think the key for this machine is to use the fabric on wider surfaces.  I was trying to sew an 1/8 of inch seam, but this machine really doesn't like it.  The machine is too aggressive.  I was about to return it, but LOOK!

IT SHIRRS!!!!!!!!!!

So if the new machine I get today can shirr, I will return this guy.  =P 

More good news!  I organized a little bit.  =)  Doug's grandma was a big sewer, so she's giving me a lot of her sewing things.  Yay!  Here's a bit of what she's given me so far.