Travel clutch- Part I

It’s been two weeks since I arrived in Boston! During the weekdays I’m buzzy with my internship but during the weekend I can be the tourist! Guess what… I love Boston. But I also miss my leather work every now and then… That’s why I brought the travel clutch with me. It’s gonna be a cross body with some bold accessories, to follow up on the latest trends (spring/summer 2018, fall/winter 2018)!!

Prepping the clutch parts

The first steps are the preparations I did before I left since I couldn’t bring my whole leather workshop with me haha.  After listing all the requirements, the design got more and more shape in my head. At that point, I just wanted to start on the bag… but all I allowed myself to do was the cutting and prepping of the bag and some hardware shopping!

Orange-ish Gold, Green-ish Gold or Yellow-ish Gold?

So what did I need… Leather ofcourse, as you could have seen in the inspiration post here, some bold golden hardware, and a design. I never knew how much different types of gold there are… one type was a bit too orange, the other too yellow and then I found another one but just too green… Eventually, I went with the more yellow-ish type of gold and found all of the other hardware pieces in the same type of ‘gold’ for the travel clutch.

Double or nothing

Since I wanted to have a safe travel clutch, I decided to make a double one, one clutch part on the one side, and another one on the other side.  So I’ll make every part twice, double the fun ;)! Eventually, it will be sewn together but you can wear it either way. This means one side is towards your body, safe and well, and the other one is for the ‘get-it-quickly-stuff’.

A new technique

Aaah you must have guessed it already… there are some new techniques in this bag. I love to learn, so I try to learn myself new techniques and share it with you of course! This time I actually didn’t know the name of the technique but a fellow leather lover was so kind to tell it to me. A ‘keersouffle’ is the technique called in Dutch but I couldn’t find the translation of it… Do you know it? Try to google it in Dutch and maybe you know the answer!

Where to start…

Each bag will have a different manual to make it. That’s part of the fun of it actually for me. This time, I figured out to start at the bottom, with the ‘keersouffle’, and work my way around the bottom to the top of the travel clutch. One side, then the other and eventually sew the two parts together… I think that will be my order. Shall we start?

Will be continued… (I can’t wait! Check my Instagram every once in a while for a quick update…)

Ps. Sorry for the late night photos…