Accessorise!

Yesterday evening was my quilt group's annual dinner. I don't have a large wardrobe but I decided a black and white jersey dress I made last summer and a nice red bolero cardi would be perfect. But ...... hang on a minute, I don't have any jewellry or a bag to match. So what should I do? Answer - make something, just in an afternoon of course!

I dyed some silk for both beads and bag, made up the necklace then set about making a clutch purse. I didn't have a pattern so made it up as I went along. First I layered the silk with thin wadding and pelmet vilene and quilted using a fine silk thread (YLI). Then I added a cotton lining and finally folded the rectangle into the bag shape and stitched the side seams. Ta da!

Actually I'm making it sound far too easy. There was a bit of fiddling around involved. I had to dye the silk pieces twice to get the colour I wanted then after I sewed the lining to the silk sandwich part of the seam was too narrow and the silk frayed at the edge. Luckily I managed to hide it inside the side seam of the bag. So it turned out well in the end!

The dinner was lovely too. We went to a local restaurant 'Tom, Dick and Harry's' for a delicious meal and had plenty of fun and laughter. A grand night out indeed!