DIY: Denim Clutch

Post by Blake

While most people my age (especially those living in a city like NYC) spend their Saturday nights out at bars, partying until the wee hours of the morning…I spend mine on my living room floor up to my ears in hot glue and scraps of fabric. And I have a great time doing it!

Last night was no exception. With Lifetime Movie Network playing on the “big screen”, I decided to pull out some old scraps of denim* I had lying around and make a clutch. (*currently working on neon clutch that’s perfect for spring/summer…stay tuned!)

This DIY requires a little bit of sewing, but don’t freak out. I am far from anybody’s seamstress so I kept it super simple.

Things You’ll Need…

1) Denim Pant Leg 2) Scissors 3) Needle & Thread 4) Hot Glue Gun 5) Closure Fixtures

I started by taking the leg portion of a pair of jeans left over from a previous DIY and cut it open along one of the seams.

Next you choose the dimensions of your clutch. I chose to make mine a medium sized clutch (about 8×6). Fold in the sides of the fabric and hot glue them down and then fold up the bottom portion and glue down the sides (only the sides) of it.

I then hand stitched up each side of the bottom portion for a little extra durability.

Fold over and glue down the edges of the top portion. Again, hand stitch the corner edges to secure in place.

If you wanted, you could stop here. It’s a totally functional clutch at this point. However, I wanted to give the denim a more finished look so I added on a few fixtures. I took all the closures from an old knock-off “Coach” clutch that I had from high school that was buried in a box in my apartment. Funny story…when I cut the fabric open to remove all the fixtures, it had remnants of “Louis Vuitton” fabric hidden inside. I laughed until I cried.

Anywho…attaching the magnetic closure button is really simple. It has two prongs that simply stick through the fabric and fold down in the back. You can use scissors to cut small holes if the fabric is too tough for you to poke the prongs through.

Now comes the “hard” part.

I snapped the fixture closed to make sure that I had every thing lined up properly. Once I had done that, I simply hot glued the portion of the flap with the other half of the magnetic closure on it to the top portion of the clutch. I, again, hand stitch for added security.

Once that was done, it was time to add the buckle to the outside of the clutch. Again, the easiest way to the this is to buckle it and then hand stitch where it lands. Luckily, I could use the holes created by the sewing machine in whatever sweatshop created the Foach wristlet, so I didn’t have to worry about poking through the leather.