A few months ago my father passed away suddenly.  He was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.  For many people they have absolutely no idea what this is.  Rather than go into alot of detail on my blog I've inserted the link to the foundation site if you are interested in finding out more information about the disease (http://www.cjdfoundation.org/).  My father had the sporatic kind so they don't know what causes it. 

My dad was a very avid hunter and went every year.  Apparently he had all the hides from every deer he got tanned.  As you can see from this bin he was very successful when it came to deer hunting.   Someone bought a few of the hides from a rummage sale we had but most didn't sell so I figured maybe I could do something with them but the question was what?  So I came up with the idea of making a clutch purse to hold my gypsy.

As you can see it fits my gypsy just perfect.

I've actually made another one of these clutch purses for a co-worker of mine.  I made a two slight changes since the first purse.  (1) I decieded to cut out some strips of leather and I braided them together for the strap, which turned out great.  (2) I bought some thin fabric from the remenant bins at Joanns and used them to line the purse.  Since I didn't want to sew the linner then sew the pieces again, I used a no-sew to adhere the linner to the leather and then I sewed everything together at once.  I had to hand stitch the strap on as it was too thick to use on the machine.  Yes I broke another leather needle. ( I've bought a back-up supply).

My co-worker loved the purse and I made alittle bit as I only charged her $15 as it was only my second try and again not quite perfect yet.