Tired of your boring old shoulder bag? Here's how to magic yourself up a catwalk-worthy clutch bag using only an egg box and somes sticky-back plastic (just kidding... Well, sort of.)
DIY foam clutch in the style of Mary Katranzou
Hands up who else loved Mary Katranzou’s A/W15 collection? We couldn’t get enough of the highlights of pink and begging-to-be-DIY’d-details.
A ‘lil research told us those bags we’d lusted after were made of Egg Box Foam, usually used for packaging purposes. Here’s how to funk up your old faithful box clutch for a night out in style.
We struggled to get our hands on the punky pink colour of foam we were after, but we found a white foam sheet for £2.59 on Ebay (advertised to be used to dry sugar flowers for cakes – who knew). The clutch we chose was a £10 boxy style from Primark, but you could use any you have lying around the house.
Start by measuring the clutch’s height and width, and drew out the dimensions on the back of the foam sheet.
Cut out with sharp scissors in one swift movement if possible, too much scissor snapping will show a jaggered edge to the foam. But one sheet from Ebay is more than enough to have a few goes should you require!
You can’t stop a DIY gal when she has her mind set on something, and we were determined to have a pink clutch. One quick coat of emulsion from a super-cheap tester pot and we were a-go.
Because we’re cer-azy DIY’ers, we’ve been pondering the use of amazing coloured carpet underlay and how we could incorporate it into a DIY for a while now (yes, I do realise I’ve just described carpet underlay as amazing). We thought this was the perfect chance to cover the other side of our clutch in the gorgeously marbled foam, if you wanna, repeat steps 3 & 4.[
Using Glu & Fix’s all purpose glue (seriously, we can’t get enough of this stuff for our DIYs, it’s the best and will work on anything, even fabric)
Hold down for a few seconds and leave to dry for 10 minutes while you make a cuppa.
DIY MM6-inspired bubble clutch
When it comes to making an on trend gold clutch for less than a fiver, DIY’s don’t much simpler than this one.
Maison Martin Margiela’s line, MM6, did an amazing ‘bubble’ clutch, but it came with an amazing price tag. We saw Susie Bubble rocking it and thought, we can do that!
Buy a postal style ‘bubble’ bag from Ebay, we bought ours in gold for a bargain £1.39. You’ll also need two packs of snap fasteners.
The bag we ordered was extra large, measured it into thirds and cut the top section off for the perfect clutch size. Create a lip by cutting down 3 inches into each edge of the bag, ready to fold over to create a fastening.
Fold the top 3 inches of the bag over, and make a crease. Place the top of the three snap fasteners along the top edge of the bag, three will make sure it shuts properly and keeps the contents safe!
It’s a little tricky, as one edge of the snap fastener is raised, but if you pop the bubble where you’re going to place it, and fill it with glue. It actually works quite well as a little glue pocket to hold the fastener into. Leave to dry for 15 mins.
One you’ve glued the tops of the fasteners, and they’ve dried, flip the bag's ‘hem’ over, and make a little mark with a pen where the middle of the fastener hits.
Place the other end of the snap fastener where your pen mark is, to ensure they will line up. Repeat the glueing steps and wait for it all to dry.
Woohoo, one brand new clutch bag, sorted. The extra bonus with the DIY? If you accidently drop your bag, the bubble wrap means it’s more likely the contents will be intact… Result!
DIY sticker clutch
When we spied* Lust and Found* magazine’s Editor, Louise Lau’s sticker clutch at London Fashion Week a few seasons back, we couldn’t wait to transform our own bag and make it 100 per cent more fun.
Stickers are totes on trend, Anya Hindmarch is reviving the trend with every fashionista covering her phone/bag/Instagram with the designer’s monogram stickers.
We collected a great range of rad ones from Hobbycraft:[
Ransom Tiny Alphabet Stickers
](http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/hobbycraft-ransom-tiny-alphabet-stickers-275-pack/597303-1000)[Djeco Wild And Cuddly Sticker Set
](http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/djeco-wild-and-cuddly-sticker-set/607078-1000)[Outline Stickers Modern Alphabet Gold
](http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/outline-stickers-modern-alphabet-gold/560131-1002)[Foam Heart Stickers
](http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/hobbycraft-foam-heart-stickers/566018-1001)Foam Flower Stickers
And a few we’d collected from magazines like Rookie, that includes a sticker foldout in every issue.
We wanted to revive a document wallet we bought from WHSmith, and give it a new lease of life as a fun clutch. You could also use a toiletry bag, Primark has a holographic lilac one for £3 that would do just the trick.
There ain’t nothing else to do here but get sticking gals!
With this clutch, more is more. We didn’t stop 'til our bag was sparkling. Sure, this may not be corporate attire, but come Friday eve, we'll be skipping out of the office with this baby...
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.