Pleated Coin Purse Tutorial

 You won’t believe how simple it is. This technique can be used for any coin purse or clutch pattern, and is a fun way to add flare to a project. The best part? This little purse only took me 20 minutes to make, from start to finish!

For this project, you’ll need a clutch or coin purse pattern. You can follow my tutorial to make your own here:

How to make a coin purse pattern

Let’s get started! For a pleated coin purse, you’ll need a pretty large scrap of fabric. I don’t have any exact dimensions for you, but make sure it’s at least twice as large as your pattern piece.

Start by drawing radiating lines out from one corner. Make sure your lines are spaced at least 1/4″ from each other at the corner. Draw as many lines as you want, but make sure there is enough space in between the lines to accommodate the pleats.

Here is a wider view of the lines on my fabric. I used tailor’s chalk to mark the lines.

Now use your iron to press the pleats along the chalked lines. Make sure you press them straight and that the pleats are equally spaced.

At your sewing machine, stitch very close to the edge of each pleat (this is called edge stitching). Go slow and make sure the stitches are perfectly straight. Sew to the end of each pleat and backstitch.

This is how mine looked when I was done stitching all the pleats:

Now, place your pattern piece on the pleated fabric. As you can see, I chose to place mine at an angle because I liked how this looked with the pleats.

Cut out your fabric. Notice that my pleats only cover about 2/3rds of the fabric. You can pleat the whole thing, if you choose.

Now cut out the remaining pieces: one back piece and two pieces for the lining.

Sew these together to form the coin purse, or metal frame clutch, using THIS TUTORIAL.

Then, as Abby would say, “Bingo!” You have a beautiful pleated coin purse or clutch to use yourself or giveaway to a friend.

Thanks for reading, friends!