Natalie Portman carried a book clutch to the New York premiere of Black Swan. Kate Spade has created a line of book clutches called Book of the Month Clutch. Portman's clutch, by designer Olympia Le-Tan, retails for $1,250, if you can even get one. Kate Spade's are $325, still out of reach for many of us.
That makes a book clutch an official fashion trend. The high cost also makes it ripe for DIY possibilities.
My DIY book clutch is similar to Kate Spade's in size and style. It costs about a dollar to make, does not damage any books, and is completely customizable. You choose your favorite author and book, and you can even design your own cover.
See the attached slideshow for a photo tutorial.
Supplies needed:
- 1 DVD movie case
- A small piece of velvet or similar fabric
- A round mirror, about 4 1/2 inches in diameter
- Glue
- A fancy button
To make the purse, which is a wallet-style clutch, you will first need to find a high-resolution image of the book you would like to reproduce. One way to do this is simply to scan the cover of a book you already have. Crop the image to the dimensions of a DVD cover. (11 inches by 7 1/4 inches) and print on a good quality color printer.
Or you can download the book cover I used. This cover of The Great Gatsby is an authentic vintage cover.
Using a razorblade, remove the plastic ring that holds a DVD in place. (You can also remove any plastic tabs, if you desire.)
Replace the movie cover on the outside of the DVD case with your book cover.
Cut your fabric to line the inside of the DVD case and glue the fabric down.
Glue the round mirror into the depression that normally holds a DVD.
Glue a button to the top edge of the DVD case as a faux fastener.
Optional: You can use additional fabric to create simple or elaborate pockets in your wallet clutch for holding an ID, change, and credit cards.
You could make a dozen of these for your book club.
The following are some additional DIY book clutch tutorials that are made from real books:
- Kate at See Kate Sew makes a book clutch from an old book and an old clutch purse.
- Curbly has a video on how to create a book clutch using an old book, a purse handle and fabric.
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