Purse Palooza – Pattern Review – Noodlehead Rainbow Clutch

This post is part of Purse Palooza 2015. For full details and contest rules, check here.
Today’s post is from Crystal of The Cloth Albatross.

I’m so excited to be a part of Purse Palooza this year. Thanks for having me, Sara! I’m Crystal of The Cloth Albatross. I love sewing and creating things with fabric, especially bags. Part of the draw of bagmaking is the awesome online community of bagmakers. There are so many inspiring, creative people to converse with when you need help or validation that what you just made is, in fact, amazing. Introductions are awkward. I’ve rewritten this paragraph 3 10 times and I think this is as good as it will get. Hopefully you stopped reading after the first sentence and just look at the pattern review and the pictures.

The pattern I chose to review, The Rainbow Clutch, is from the book Handmade Style

by Anna Graham of Noodlehead Patterns. There are so many great patterns in this book. I’ve made 4 of them but would like to eventually make them all.

FABRIC

The fabrics that I chose for this project are fromthe Story collection by Carrie Bloomston. The colors of her fabrics are striking, and the visual texture of fabric is awesome.

PATTERN CHANGES AND ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES

The only thing I changed on the Rainbow Clutch was using fusible fleece behind the magnetic snaps, and using interfacing instead of paper for the foundation piecing.

In addition to the pattern supply list, I used:

Scraps of fusible fleece(Pellon Fusible Thermolam)

Piece of fusible featherweight interfacing (Pellon 911FF)

FOUNDATION PAPER PIECING

One of the aspects that make this pattern so customizable is the paper-pieced front pocket, but if you’ve never done foundation piecing before, that can be intimidating. This is one step in the pattern that I altered slightly – I used 911FF interfacing instead of paper for my foundation. The foundation pattern piece is larger than standard sized paper, and I was out of parchment paper (what I would normally use to trace pattern pieces), so this idea really came to me from the unicorn’s behind.  The interfacing worked out perfectly, becausethe only thing that I don’t like about paper-piecingis tearing away the paper at the end. When using interfacing, you just fuse it and leave it.

I started by tracing the foundation pattern piece onto the non-fusible side of the interfacing.

I also changed the numbering on the pattern piece. Since you start in the center, that’s where I started numbering.

The numbers and lines are on the side of the foundation that is sewn; the fabric is placed on the other side. The first piece of fabric goes on the center block (block 1) of the foundation, with the wrong side of the fabric against the fusible side of the interfacing. The first piece of fabric is the only one that is placed right side up (with the wrong side against the fusible side of the interfacing). The consecutive pieces will be placed right sides together (RST) with the fabric that’s already placed.

After the first piece of fabric is placed, the second piece goes RST and at least ¼” over the line between block 1 and 2. After the fabrics are placed, sew directly over the line between 1 and 2.

After the line is sewn, the seam allowance (SA) needs to be trimmed to ¼”. It’s not essential, but the Add-A-Quarter ruler is really handy for foundation piecing. It has a ¼” lip on it so that it can be butted up against the folded over paper (or in my case, interfacing) and easily trim ¼”.

After the SA is trimmed, press the seam. I had to be careful to only press the area that I wanted fused to the interfacing. I also used a Frixion pen, which disappears in the presence of heat, so I didn’t want all my lines disappearing.

PLACING MAGNETIC SNAPS

The other change I made to the pattern was putting fusible fleece behind the magnetic snaps when I installed them. This makes the snaps more robust so that they don’t pull away from the fabric when opening and closing.  On the snap tab, I used the stitch guide as a pattern piece to cut the fleece. I should have trimmed off a ¼” from the top straight edge so that it wasn’t in the SA, especially since that’s where the top zipper is sewn on. It made it fairly thick to sew in that spot. On the snap tab, I used a piece of fleece the size of the tab, so that there wasn’t a visible lump behind the snap. Since the other half of the snap is hidden behind the snap tab on the top of the front pocket, I just used a small scrap of fleece behind it.

The magnetic snap keeps items in the front slip pocket secure.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The one deterrent to this pattern is that it’s in a book and not PDF form but with the amount of patterns in the book, the price per pattern is just over $1. Completely worth the wait and tracing pattern pieces.

The only change I would make next time I make the pattern is not putting the back zipper pocket on the exterior back panel, as I don’t think that I will use it, and it will make this clutch an even quicker sew.

This clutch is a great for using up scraps and, if you’re careful with your piecing, you can even use a charm pack on the front pocket. If you look closely at the bottom left piece, you can see the edge of the charm square, but it will be within the SA, so it will work. (This is a Rainbow Clutch that I started in Cotton + Steel Spellbound fabrics.)

I hope you like Anna’s patterns as much as I do. Thank you for reading and thank you, Sara, for having me. You can find me on Instagram as @clothalbatross