Gathered Clutches - Hooray!!!

We'll I started this morning and managed to make four adorable, not quite perfect, but still totally cute gathered clutches!!  I used this tutorial from Noodlehead that I have had bookmarked forever.  I am so excited to have finally made these and to have had them actually turn out!!  Yippee Skippee!!

So, how about a little rundown :)
Making up all of the pieces was pretty easy.  Just your basic cutting straight lines and sewing seams.  The tabs on the zippers had me a little confused but I managed to figure it out.  I did learn something though about cutting.  See how my Octopus are floating sideways in the bottom left hand corner, ya gotta watch that directional print, oops :)

And a huge thank you for all of your suggestions.  It made a major difference to make the gathered fabric a little larger and then trim.  And I love the purple band vs the old dull color I originally pulled.  You all are the greatest!!!

After all the pieces were set it was time to put in the zipper.  This is the first time I have used the zipper foot on my machine.  I know, sad, but true.  It wen't pretty well but I did have a few hiccups.  Hey, no one is perfect right.

I managed to sew on the wrong side of the zipper for this piece and completely enclosed the zipper.  That's not gonna work.  A little unpicking always saves the day.   I also forgot to take a picture (a little frustrated at that point)  of me sewing directly on top of 2 zippers instead of to the side.  But, I learned a lot ;)

So once I got the zippers in it was time to sew the clutch together.  I have to admit, this is the part that I was the most concerned about.  The next picture tells the story :)

I managed to get the left side of each pouch turned quite nicely, the right sides were a bit of a different matter.  I did the pink one first and just didn't push out enough.  I was worried about busting the seam, should have worried less and pushed more.  Next were the yellow and green ones.  These had a struggle because I hadn't sewn the zipper in evenly in the last step.  See how on the picture above the zipper part lines up at the top but has a big gap at the bottom.  Live and learn.  But . . . by the time I got to the last one, perfection!!

So that's the rundown.  I learned a lot. Got a little frustrated, but mostly had a lot of fun.  And I want to make more, so that is a very good sign :)  So now, just for fun, let's see them each close up :)

 Clutch #1: Fabrics are Power Pop by Jenean Morrison for the main part and then 2 prints I got out of a clearance pile at my LQS  for the band and lining.  Sadly, I don't know the names of them.

Clutch #2: Fabrics are Heirloom by Joel Dewberry for the main part, Simply Color by Vanessa Christensen for the band, and Terrain by Kate Spain for the lining.

 Clutch #3: Fabrics are Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for the main part and the band and Mendocino by Heather Ross for the lining.

Clutch #4: Fabrics are all So Sophie by My Mind's Eye and it happens to be my favorite :)

I can't wait to give these to my special friends.  Thanks for all of your help and advice.  It really made tackling this project so much easier :)  And now, back to some quilting :)

And since these were a huge first time finish for me, I am totally linking up to Amanda and Amy :)