Introducing... The Scrappy Flower Gathered Clutch!

Is this the cutest thing ever or what? The scrappy flower gathered clutch. I adapted a flower tutorial from Sew Serendipity and tweaked the gathered clutch pattern from Noodlehead. I love the results! So cute and girlie! In the flower tutorial, the creator Kay Whitt uses a fancy dancy gathering foot on her machine. I called Richland Sewing Center and they cost $59 bucks--sorry not this month. I found it is just as do-able to gather the old-fashioned way. I just ran two basting stitching down the entire length of the pressed over fabric and then gathered while watching Parenthood. Kinda therapeutic. The strips gather up nicely to about half the length of the original strip.

The original pattern for the gathered clutch uses a 14 inch strip for the front and that gathers down to about 9 inches. I used an 18 inch strip. I like the puffier-ness of it. I also reduced the width of the front band that hides the gathering stitches by an inch. I like the proportions of the way it turned out.

My only dilemma with the piece is how to attach the flower to the clutch. Right now it is fastened on with a big ole safety pin. Probably the best way to do it is to hand sew it on, but I have no patience for that. I'm part of the microwave generation, you know. I thought about using fabric glue. Is that too tacky. It's very frowned up on Project Runway. A crafty friend suggested velcro, but I'm afraid it would pull off. What to do, what to do, what to do???