Recently the Babydoll and I had an evening at the ballet (my mother also joined us). She has been taking ballet for about 4 years and since we have gotten her into a decent school she is improving and learning more. Her love of dance (not just ballet, but all types – I have to find a hiphop class now) is steadily growing along with her excitement about performing.

So the performance that we attended was hosted by the Indianapolis City Ballet and was titled “An Evening With The Stars”. There were performances from Primas and Primes from all over the world. It was an awesome event and it had my Babydoll fired up and ready to begin her new semester of classes (she is moving up to a new class this year.) and my mother and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Of course when you are going out for the evening to a performing arts event (opera, ballet, symphony) you always need to dress accordingly. This was our first time attending anything during the warmer months of the year and it took us a little time to think of the perfect outfit. The weather was a little on the cool side (the high was only in the mid-70’s and the evening promised to be much cooler) but not cool enough to require a jacket. You wanted to wear something nice, but unfortunately a lot of the times people in my city underdress for these occasions, so we didn’t want to overdress. I settled for all black – dress slacks and a blouse with shoes and a clutch to match. The thing was….I didn’t necessarily have a understated clutch. I have clutches for fancy events, but not a plain one.

I had been looking for some clutches but just didn’t find anything that spoke to me or anything I was willing to pay the amount of money they were asking for it.  These are wonderful…

 

or this beauty

and who doesn’t love Jimmy Choo

I’d even settle for a convertible clutch that I could also use a one of my regular bags.

But I was finding these in my budget.  So I got to thinking….and decided I could make a clutch.

I went to my best source for information – Google – started researching how to make a clutch. I found many resourceful sites – the most popular was turning a placemat into a clutch. I loved the idea and the simplicity of it, but was unable to find a placemat that appealed to me. I decided to take a trip to my favorite fabric store (Joann’s) and see what inspired me. Once I told Babydoll what I was going to do she declared that she wanted a clutch too. Do you see why she is a babydoll? I keep getting to dress her up. We walked around the store until we found something that spoke to us – there was actually several things that spoke to us, but we had to contain ourselves – and made our purchases.

I have to say that making the clutches was not an easy task. Mine was easy but I didn’t add the closures because I didn’t buy any because I thought I was going to use a zipper, which I put in the Babydolls clutch and it was totally hair-pulling worthy. This is the partially finished clutch for myself I still need to add the snaps.  You have to excuse the blurriness of the photos, I was rushing to take the pics because it was close to time to get ready.

the inside lining…I had to keep it funky…

I have a pair of shoes that match perfectly so I pulled them out.

I also made a headband for my Babydoll that matched her dress and shoes.

The time and effort that I spent making the bags wasn’t really that bad. I spent about three hours total and a lot of that was just trying to get that stupid zipper in (they really do confound me.). But I will tell you what it has done to me…I now know that I can make a clutch. The possibilities are endless. Clutches for every occasion. I still love my big throw everything into them bags, but now I can have a clutch for grown up nights when I don’t want to carry much. Or a clutch for when we are going to a fair and I just need something to hold lipstick, id and a couple of dollars. I’m thinking clutches as Christmas gifts to my girls (if any of you are reading this act surprised when you receive it). Why just stop at a clutch, I need a new laptop bag and I haven’t found anything that “pop’s my panties”. I feel a new project coming on. Joann’s here I come.