DIY Fun Clutch Purse from an Anthro Place Mat

A few weeks ago I was in Anthropologie with my mama, and came across these fun place-mats. I thought it was so cute, but we’re not that fancy when it comes to our place settings. In fact most of the time, we eat on tv trays in the living room. I carried the place mat around the store with me none the less trying to figure out if there was somewhere else in my house it would fit. I am always making bags with napkins and tablecloths, so I thought, man this would be a cute clutch purse. So I bought the one place mat and got to work. This clutch is super easy and you can use any place mat you fancy!

Here’s What You Need:

*Place Mat

*Zipper long enough to cover the height of your place mat. I think mine was a 14″

*Double fold bias tape

*Scissors

*Leather Scrap

*Sewing Machine and Coordinating Thread

*Embroidery Floss and Strong Hand Sewing Needle

Instructions:

First gather all your supplies together. Measure and cut your placemat in half width wise so the sides of the placemat are your bottom of your clutch.

Sandwich the cut top side of the front clutch piece in between your double fold bias tape. You may want to pin the tape on. Top stitch close to the bottom of the bias tape all the way across. Do the same thing with the back clutch piece.

Cut a scrap of leather to make your pocket. I made mine to be 5×6″. Center the pocket on the front bag piece. Stitch around the sides and bottom of the pocket leaving the top open.

Now you are ready to stitch on the zipper. Put on your zipper foot. Lay one side of your zipper centered right on top of the top of your front of your clutch piece. Pin in place. Your teeth should be laying right above the top of the clutch piece. Stitch the zipper tape down. You will need to stitch up to the zipper pull, then making sure your needle is down into the fabric, lift up your foot and unzip the zipper past the foot. Then put the foot back down and continue sewing. Once you have the one side of your zipper stitched, repeat with the back side of the clutch piece. Make sure you line up the two sides so they are sitting exactly mirrored. Pin the zipper and stitch it down like you did the front side. Snip off any extra zipper tape.

Now you are ready to stitch around your clutch. If you have a place mat that is chunky like mine you will have to hand stitch the bag. If you have a thinner place mat, stitch around the sides and bottom close to the edge. If yours is too thick to sew on a machine, thread a needle with embroidery floss and hand stitch all the way around using a back stitch method, or whatever stitch you prefer. Once your bag is stitched all the way around, you are done. Fill er’ up and go!

I just LOVE my new clutch! This is a fantastic weekday bag for me since when I’m running errands or just out for a few moments, I can toss in my wallet, phone, and keys, and go! It is a good size too! Not too small to where I’d lose it easily, but not too big to carry either. It fits perfectly under my arm! I love my anthro place mat purse! This was such an easy DIY, I may have to make more of them, next time I see a place mat at a store I just love. I hope you all will give this project a try sometime! It’s a lot of fun, even the hand stitching! I’ll be back next week with some fun Halloween DIY’s! Until then….

Happy Crafting!