Adding a strap to your fold over party clutch, Corkstopper week.

I am sew excited to introduce you again to a beautiful lady and one of my pattern testing team, Hermione from LTB Designs. Hermione is my guest blogger and bringing you the long awaited tutorial on how to add a cork strap to your fold over party clutch.....get excited!

 

 

 

Onto the Fold Over Party Clutch. This is a fun little pattern with some creative options for contrasting fabrics. It’s a good pattern for a confident beginner, although I think some experience with making bags would be helpful when following the pattern. I had a customer who wanted one but she wanted a removable cross body strap that could be hidden when she used it as a clutch (no loops out the side with visible rings when the strap was detached). Here’s a quick tutorial on how I did it.

1. Attach your magnetic snaps on the front half of your body panel.

 

2. Fold the panel so that the magnetic snap is together, then you can see where the fold line will be. Mark the fold on each side with an air erasable marker. 

 

 3. Mark a line along the half inch seam allowance just below the fold line, this is where your D ring will sit

 

4.   Do this for both sides.

 

5. Cut two strips of cork leather 3 inches long and whatever width will fit the D rings you’ve used. Fold them in thirds as shown in the photo with the D ring attached. Pin them so that when extended the rings just touch the lines you marked as shown.

**don’t pin through the cork as the marks will be permanent. You can use masking tape and sew through it, then rip it off, or pin as I’ve done here so that the cork is held between the two pinned pieces.

 

 

 

6. Sew the tabs on, make sure to lengthen your stitch to  3.5 or more.

 

7.       Follow the rest of the instructions and finish off your clutch! To make your cross body strap you will want it to be about 44-50 inches long, attach it with swivel clasps and you’re done.

 

Finally here are my top tips for working with cork leather ( I’m no expert but this is from my several months experience working with it).

1.       Use a finer leather needle, I use size 80. If you find your machine struggles to get through layers on seams etc try a sharps needle.

2.       Lengthen your stitch similarly to working with leather or vinyl. I do seams with 3.5 and top stitching on 5. If you stitch too close together it can tear.

3.       I usually use upholstery thread in both needle and bobbin for the seams with high tension so they hold strongly, it will depend on how your machine handles it.

4.       You CAN backstitch once on cork, but if you can it’s better to pull the top thread through to the back and tie a knot with the bobbin thread tail.

5.       If your cork leather is like mine, it’s on a PU coated textile backing. You can interface it but only on wool setting with steam. Too hot and it can separate from the cork layer when it cools, so be gentle with it.

6.       If you’re using for straps and it will have long raw edges, cut crossways, selvedge to selvedge. Otherwise it will fray! (Ask me how I know, grrr).

 

Thank you Hermione! This is fabulous. I look forward to seeing straps on your fold over pasrty clutches very soon.

 

Happy Sewing,

Kylie. x