U-handblog

Inroducing The Trinity - 3 Compartment Clutch pattern and kit

This pretty-swish 3 compartment clutch is the sister of The Trinity Bag. 

The clutch is just the right size to feel comfy in your hand (or held by the detachable wrist strap) yet roomy enough to fill with your essentials. Thanks to it's use of this amazing fusible foam it is  beautifully structured - this clutch is no floppy fish!   It has 3 compartments (2 same-sized main compartments and 1 smaller middle compartment) and is fully lined.  From the side the 2 main compartments resemble bellows. 

A clutch that has 3 compartments makes for easier organisation and rummaging.  You can store your larger items in the large front and back compartments and you can store your smaller items such as: tickets, and credit cards in the small middle compartment. What is handy is that you can access all 3 compartments via one flap (this means no having to pop open or unzip various pockets to get at what you need). The clutch is secure thanks to it's posh-looking tongue lock.

Things we love:

• She's secure - the tongue lock is effective and looks fab.
• She looks so professional - we think she has 'boutique' looks!
• She's versatile - hold her in your hand or by the wrist - she's comfy either way!
• She's not nearly as hard to make as you might think - I promise.
• She's roomy and organised - for her neat dimensions she can hold fair amount!  Organise everything over 3 compartments and enjoy calm rummaging.

Finished size: 13in (W) x 10in (H) (33cm x 25.5cm)

 

This bag will be available as: fabrics included kit here and here, a pattern booklet, and a Blank bag making kit.

 

Click on the pics to enlarge:
 

'Look no hands'!  No props were used to make this clutch stand up - the secret of this clutch's 'standupability' is the AMAZING interlining used inside - Bosal In-R-form double sided fusible foam is magic stuff. It gives fantastic professional-looking structure to bags and purses.  And notice how clearly defined the top-stitching is on the flap? - also thanks to the fusible foam.

Outer fabric is Musical Chairs - Strings (the jade colour is beautifully rich, we love it)

Side view: with the detachable wrist strap and a better view of the fabric tab on the (medium) purse tongue lock - the small design details do make all the difference.

Another variation. Outer fabric is Lewis & Irene Arboretum - Buds and Berries Grey.

The 3 compartment clutch stores loads of gear - without looking bulky.

Lining fabric is Musical Chairs - Sweet Notes.

 

Skye always has amazing rainbow nails! Here you can see the clutch is not too big, or too small.

 

 

Hello VATMOSS - Bye bye PDF patterns

 

At the end of this year I will be shutting down the PDF patterns website - why????

Read on....

Life is sometimes what happens outside the cosy, happy confines of our craft work room/area/mess.  You may or may not have heard about the dogs dinner that is 'Vatmoss'.  Vatmoss affects all retailers (worldwide) of electronic downloads and all EU member based consumers of download products.

Without elaborating too much (but you can read about it here - good luck, it's not terribly clear or cheerful reading) it is a EU ruling which requires ALL retailers of electronic download goods (be that someone selling a few sewing patterns to the likes of Netflix) to pay VAT on each sale - based on the purchaser's EU country.  Yes, my head is also hurting....  Soooo under the new ruling, lets say someone in Germany buys one of my PDF sewing patterns, I would then have to pay the German rate of VAT to the German tax office. I would have to do this for each and every EU based pattern sale.  Which (I don't know about you) sounds about as appealing as: falling down the stairs with a big bag of forks. 

Retailers will be faced with a horrific amount of paperwork (just for starters: we would be expected to record all EU sales (and personal from that sale) and retain that data for 10 years, and be aware of the different VAT rates for EU countries, and submit a quarterly return), and anyway how on earth do I find out where the purchaser is based?? They say that registiering for VATMOSS will simplify the process, yeah right...I'm not even going there...    An option would be to block all EU based sales, but even if I had the facility to do that, it is not in the spirit of how I operate.  I've always tried to be inclusive in what I do, I certainly don't want to start telling folks 'you can't buy my patterns because you live in the wrong country'.

It is very sad and inappropriate that for this ruling  micro/small business have been lumped in with corporations. It doesn't take a genius to see that this will lead to the death of 100s of thousands of small businesses and kill off scores of potential start ups.  This is tragic.  For many, selling downloads provides a modest source of income for: mums, those who are housebound, or as supplement to a low wage, or just a little bit of money to help the household!   I accept that those who earn, have taxes to pay - and I do!   But it has always been within the confines of a means tested system. This new ruling is not means tested - it's gobbledygook!

So it is with heavy heart (and death-ray beams fixed upon those who dreamt up this nonsense) that I have decided that on 31st Dec I will shut down the patterns website - for good - or until they see sense, do an about turn, and enforcing the ruling fairly by applying it only to the big players: Amazon and Netflix et al.

Sigh!