Spring Birdies

    Spring means birds chirping, flowers blooming, and bright colors. This clutch has all of it! I made this yesterday using Noodlehead's gathered clutch tutorial. It was super easy and quick and would probably be a great pattern for beginners.

    I got the fabric in a bundle of five fat quarters from Joann Fabrics. These two prints went together the best and it turns out I really like the color combo blue/purple. Who knew they looked so cute together? And I barely needed any of the bird print fabric for this so I'll still be able to use it for another project :D 

    I opted to leave out all the card slots on the inside because the function I had in mind while making this was a make up case. Although I like this one the way it is, I'm thinking I might make another will all the 'optional' things from the tutorial included before I write up a review for it.

    My zippers always used to look less than stellar. They would get bunched up and stuff at the ends where the side seam was. I recently found out a secret though, I'll try to explain it with pictures.

*This assumes you know how to make a simple zipper pouch the traditional way that I was taught*

1. Sew a little square of fabric on each end of the zipper. Cut 2 squares 2" x 2" and fold two sides into the middle, then fold it in half again so it's 1/2" x 2". Then sew then end of the zipper in it and trim the extra off of the sides. Do it again for the other side.

2. When you cut your lining and outer fabric make sure they are an inch longer than your zipper with the fabric ends. This means you are including a half inch seam allowance on your fabric but not on your zipper. When you sew around the outside(red dashed line), with the two lining fabrics together and the two exterior fabrics together, you do not sew the fabrics ends on the zipper into the seam. (I forgot to show where you would leave a gap in the stitching so you'd be able to turn the whole thing right side out)

3. This is what the ends will look like close up when you turn everything right side out. The gap that shows in the picture is unrealistic(it's a tight fold, nothing is going to fall out through it) but I was just trying to illustrate the idea better.

    If I explained something in a questionable manner let me know. Also if you're completely confused then you might not make your zipper pouches the way I used to, in which case disregard this or I can try to draw pictures for the whole process.

Thanks for looking, feel free to let me know what you think!

Comments/Criticisms welcome :)