Monday, December 24, 2012

Book Clutch

I saw these book clutches on the interwebs and decided that I absolutely had to make one for my daughter. She's an English major and is obsessed with literature. I followed this Instructables pattern and found it simple enough.

I used duck cloth so it would be durable, but it also made it difficult to work with and a bit bulky. If I had it to do over again, I would use a lighter weight material. Basically, you just buy a hardcover book that looks good without the sleeve. I had no idea how difficult a task that would be! I tried to find her favorite book, Wuthering Heights, but all of the hard cover books I found had plain covers, so that was out. I did look online, but it was difficult to tell what the actual book looked like. I found  Sir Walter Scott's, The Waverly Novels, that had a nice looking, vintage, cover.  This is perfect for my daughter because Waverly was the first historical novel written and my daughter is a historical fiction writer/reader, she's actually completely obsessed. My husband was horrified that I was cutting out the pages of a book. He freaked when I went to burn it in the fireplace and even made me rewatch Fahrenheit 451. Lol. In my defense, the cover was in good shape, the pages were not. I avoided the beautiful books in great condition to alleviate some of my guilt! So, you cut out the pages, make the lining, and attach purse handles and closure snaps. I had some purse handles on hand that my mom gave me last year, so all in all, this project cost me about $5 to make (the cost of the book). I have since found a Wuthering Heights version on Etsy and wish that I had just bought it for her (very reasonably priced). It's still very cute and I think she's gonna love it! 

 



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