on-the-fly organization, and two clutch purses

I made these clutch purses from a fat quarter and some dark brown quilting cotton from my stash.

This is the first one I made.

It was fun to learn how to add a zipper at the top with the fabric wrapping over the edges. The gathering and fusing of the gathers was kind of a cool trick, too.

The clutch was made according to this tutorial (recommended):

gathered clutch tutorial

I prefer a clutch with a strap, and I prefer not to have the zipper showing like that, which makes it look a bit plain. So I made this one:

I have no heavyweight interfacing (peltex/timtex), so I improvised by fusing a piece of felt to the wrong side of the fabric, using two-sided fusing paper (or whatever it's called...). The felt was slightly crushed and also shifted a tiny bit out of place by pressing (and maybe even shrunk a bit). But otherwise it worked rather well and gave the bag a nice structure.

For this clutch I used this tutorial (also very recommended):

Simple Party Clutch tutorial

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My house has been slowly becoming more and more disorganized, so on a whim I stitched up these fabric (flannel) baggies, labeled them with a fabric marker, and using some nails, a hammer, some string and some clothespins, stashed my small but clutter-creating stuff on the wall.

You have your pens and pencils, markers, sewing machine needles, ribbons and cords, buttons, zippers, elastic, rotary cutters and blades, beads, snaps, glue and tape, and your famous "misc."

Less clutter on your shelves, in your boxes and drawers and work surfaces. Yay!

I left this bag closer to my work area rather than in the back room (sewing machine feet):

By the way this is a great way to stash your measuring tape:

Now there's a lot less clutter in my sewing area. I left only the things I really use all the time.

I like that I've whipped up these hanging storage baggies in no time. I like that you can move the bags around and carry them with you to another room, easily dump a bag's contents on the table to find what you need once in a while, and stuff everything back in and pin the bag back up - and no mess created.

That being said, this project could definitely be upgraded. Here are some thoughts:

• Use prettier clothespins (wooden ones) or clips
• Secure the clothespins / clips to some sturdy surface such as a plank of wood, which can be decorated - painted or wrapped with fabric.
• Another option is to sew a little fabric/cord loop on each bag and create a surface with little hangers that you hang the loops on. This would be a bit more fussy work, and the bags might look more messy on the wall hanging on their loops like that.
• Make all of the bags the same size (or have a row of smaller bags and a row of larger bags). This would definitely be more aesthetic.
• Write much larger labels, so they're clearer and easier to read, and prettier. Maybe use stencils and fabric paint.
• Write the labels on separate pieces of fabric (in a different color) and sew them on.

What do you think? Which would work? Do you have any other improvement ideas?