A Sewing Disaster

As much as I would like to NOT share this sewing project with you, I felt it would be unfair for you to always assume that all my projects turned out for the better.  So here we go with my clutch that I made. 

Let me start by telling you I bought the fabric for this project probably 4 years ago and had all the pieces cut to size already, and just didn't even start it... now that I'm done, I think I know the reason I never started.

I have the book Amy Butler's In Stitches: More Than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects.  I bought it a long time ago when I was just starting to teach myself how to sew.  LOTS of fun ideas in this book, but not all of them are as simple as the title sounds - just to warn you.

I decided to finish the clutch because I am struggling with the prominent mommy issue of carrying a purse and diaper bag.  I thought a large clutch that could fit my phone, chap stick small journal would be perfect to just shove in the diaper bag, and then it's also a clutch that fits in my purse if I happen to be enjoying the rare occasion of leaving the house without the baby (gasp!). 

It started out not so bad, I made the outside cover, and even made the ruffle and attached it with little to no problems, but then it was time to attach the zipper.  After 4 times of ripping it apart I finally got it together to where it looked "normal."  I made the inside liner and it turned out FABULOUS!!! My lines are so straight it's amazing.  But as I went to attach the liner to the outside it all fell apart.

There are SO. MANY. LAYERS. to this project that my sewing machine couldn't handle it.  I even bought the crazy heavy duty needles, but it just kept jamming, breaking, and frustrating the snot out of me. 

So instead of two perfectly symmetrical lines on the outside of my clutch I have 500 starts and stops zig zagging over the entire thing making it look horrific.

Here is the inside:

Pretty great if  I say so myself.  Room for all I need when running out of the house.  I am still going to use this by the way.  I worked too hard to just throw it away for heaven's sake!

The side with the pocket - see my zillions of stitch lines?? Ugh.  Also I had to sew and rip apart some parts so many times that my fabric is already fraying. 

And the side with the ruffle attached, again with accompanying crazy stitch lines.

After finishing the project I have learned a few things.

1. My aunt suggested to use solid fabrics with exact match thread on difficult projects... makes perfect sense to me now!  Then my mess ups wouldn't be so ridiculously obvious.  Although the fun fabrics are cute, they go much better with a straight top stitch line. 

2. My garage sale sewing machine is not as strong as I wish it was, so I need to stick to more basic projects without zillions of layers and pockets and intensely hard interfacing.

That's all.  I'm going to go pat myself on the back for even sharing this project with you.