bridesmaids gifts

This is kind of a funny story.  A woman called me a month ago asking if I would sew up some bridesmaids gifts for her wedding.  She had actually bought a lot of my stuff at a craft show I attended last year, and kept my business card.  Pretty cool, since I figured most of them would get tossed in the garbage.  Anyway, I agreed because she lives in the same town, is the art teacher at the elementary school, and I actually work for the same company as her brother.  Small world. 

Now I guess I should insert here that I do not usually sew for people other than my friends and family, especially in this quantity.  I would love to, but there's just not ever enough time. 

We ended up agreeing on using my gathered clutch pattern for the bridesmaids and making a simple snap wallet for additional wedding party gifts, yep, 9 of each! I kind of cringed a bit when she told me she had bought her own fabric, but it worked out great, my only contribution was the Amy Butler Love print.  I didn't feel pressured to try and put together any fabric combos, since she requested it to be more of an eclectic look.

I used nine 1/2 yard cuts for making it all, clutches and wallets, with a bit of scraps leftover.  Each had a handy dandy detachable wrist strap and two card holders.  I used an alternate way of making the interior clutch card holders and I will definitely post on that later, just another way of doing it, that's all.

I felt kind of like a sweat shop, by the third night of consecutive sewing, I felt pretty worn down.  I did make them all assembly line style, which helped a lot.  Cut all the pieces, did the interfacing, and assembled all the parts separately.  I also grouped the colors together when I did all of the top stitching so I wouldn't have to keep switching threads.

She's getting married this weekend, and hopefully I can sneak in and get a few shots of the stuff in action!