My very first gathered clutch

So I'm not a big bag maker.

I've only made 1 other bag (my fall fan bag) before, so I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I decided I needed to make a clutch to use at my sister's wedding. I figure it would be a good step to my ultimate goal of completing Amy Butler's Weekender Bag.

After a lot of research, I settled on making the gorgeous gathered clutch from one of my favorite blogs - noodlehead. There are always well written tutorials and the site provides a wealth of inspiration. The instructions looked easy enough, so I figured I could handle it.

After a few hours of very mild confusion (gather stitches? What does that mean? You don't gather stitches while quilting!) I had my very own gathered clutch:

And ya know what?

I adore it.

I will be making more in the future, because it really didn't take that long -- and now that I know how to gather stitches it should go together even faster. The design possibilities on this one are endless. I am glad that I have made it one step closer to the weekender bag...gulp...