My “Stuffed Clutch” Bridesmaid Gifts

Today I’d like to show you how I made a {hopefully} useful and {hopefully} reusable bridesmaid gift for the girls in our wedding party.

My first plan, inspired by Jeannine at Small Chic Home, was to give the ladies each a pretty satin or silk robe (made with fair labor, of course).  After much searching I found some in the Worldstock Fair Trade section of Overstock.com.  However, when the silky pink robes arrived, I didn’t love the ridiculously short length of them – there was no way I could envision ANY of my friends wearing them again after the big day.

I immediately knew what I’d do instead – give them each a pretty clutch purse to carry on the big day.  Not only would it provide some coordination with their purposefully mismatched dresses, it would hopefully take the place of bridesmaid bouquets – something we’d chosen not to do.

After much searching – and moments of thinking “maybe I should sew them myself” – I found these summery, floral clutches made by NeenaBags on Etsy.  (Psst:  check out these adorable clutches she now has in her shop!)  Sidenote:  They were very, very well made.

(I tried to do as much wedding-accessory-shopping on Etsy as possible, because I know that I’m supporting handmade / small business owners as well as getting items that were more likely made with fair labor than if they were mass-produced in factories overseas. )

I filled each clutch with items that I thought would come in handy:

• Little packs of tissue
• Chapstick with sunscreen
• Disposable tooth brushes
• Mini deodorant
• Pieces of fashion tape
• Safety Pins
• Hair Pins / Bobby Pins
• Feminine Hygiene Products
• Hello Kitty band aids. These ended up coming in handy for me, actually!

We’d have our hair done up – so what if it started to come undone and we needed bobby pins?  I made cute little cards using store-bought tags and washi tape, added some safety pins in case those were needed, and then slipped the bobby pins on the end, writing “Put a pin in it!” on the tag just to be silly. 🙂

I loved how it turned out.

Each clutch got wrapped in tissue paper, then nestled into a little brown paper gift bag. To dress up the plain gift bags, I cut long strips of decorative scrapbook paper and glued them to the front center of the bags.

When I gave the clutches to my friends, they seemed to like them.  Of course, being the wonderful friends that they are, they probably wouldn’t have said anything if they didn’t!  It was for the wedding after all. . .   🙂

On the day of, they all looked lovely, and I was pretty pleased with the use of pretty floral clutches in place of “disposable” flowers.   If even one of them reuses their bag in the future, then I consider the mission a success!