More than table decor...

I'm all about remixing and revamping things, so I love when I can find another purpose for an item.  While searching Youtube videos on how to make your own clutch purse, I caught a video title out of the corner of my eye...DIY: Placemat clutch.  This intrigued me of course because it's a DIY project, but making a purse from a placemat, really????  So of course I had to watch and it was super easy.  But then again almost everything on Youtube looks super easy and then somehow it doesn't transform for me that way in real life.  But, I figured this was a cheap project so if it didn't work out, no love lost.  

So on my next trip to the thrift store I went straight to the home section and found a ton of placemats.  Although there was plenty to choose from, I had to be careful to get ones that were fairly sturdy so they would hold up as a clutch.  I picked up a few at $0.99 each just to try and I couldn't wait to get home!  Got home, ran upstairs and got my iron and heat-n-bond no sew tape (looooovvveee this stuff)!  I folded them how I wanted them to look and ran the iron over them just to set the shape to make it easier to work with.  Of course I couldn't just leave them as is, I searched around my house to see what I already had that I could use and found some scrap fabric and studs that I actually bought from Ebay for another project.  Needless to say, once the wheels started turning there was no stopping it  and my creative juices were overflowing!  Since I was having so much fun and I thought they were looking pretty damn good, I decided to give these out to the women in my life as Christmas gifts.  No, they aren't fancy but I thought they would like them and they are all unique :).  I wanted to get this post out before Christmas but didn't want to risk anyone seeing them, but these can be used as a gift for any occasion...Valentine's Day, birthday, mother's day or even a personalized gift for your bridal party.  I have attached pics below of some of the clutches I made (I made about 15 in total), it was really a fun project.  Please let me know if you try and how it comes out!

 

 

 

We bought our daughter a Doc Mcstuffins Leappad2 for Christmas so I decided to make her a case to carry the game, charger, extra stylus, and her headphones.  I couldn't find any Doc McStuffins fabric so I had to go with the next best which for her is Tinkerbell.  I made this one out of a yellow placemat, added a piece of fabric for a strap (you fancy huh??? lol), and bought some iron-on letters from Hobby Lobby to put her name on it!

** For easy and simple closures with these, I simply bought some circular magnets from Lowes that were pretty heavy duty and used my hot glue gun to attach.  And to secure the sides close I used my sewing machine to sew them together!