Third time's the charm

Yay I finished the zippered pouch for the Mouthy Stitches swap, and no swearing at all during it's construction today. Well not until I though about making a zipper pull. That involved lots of swearing, during two failed attempts trying to make something interesting and a bit different. If I can bear to try again, it might have a zipper pull on it before I send it to it's new home.

Front

The English paper pieced pieces on the front and back are 1 inch elongated hexagons. The front was made in one piece and I used 1 inch squares covered in the linen to join the X shapes together. This was then appliqued on to Essex linen which I used for the front and back. The back was made using one X shape, appliqued on an angle, and hand stitching in orange perle thread to add interest. It was a spur of the moment decision to make the back like that after being inspired by this on flickr, and I'm so pleased I did.

Back

Pink zip and LouLouthi lining

As I gave an option to my partner to choose either a pink or yellow zip, I'm sorry this reveal of the lining and pink zip is going to disappoint anyone who asked for the yellow zip.

I think I'm capable of making more zippered pouches now, I'm just not sure whether I'll be making them any time soon, although BP (Bitchypoo) has asked me to make her one. In fact she asked me if she could have this one and I make something else for my partner, lol.

I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to do much commenting on blogs the last week. I always try to find the time to read new posts and keep up with what has been happening, so please accept my apologies if I didn't comment on posts this week.

Well that was interesting

I CAN make a pouch with a zipper.

It took me awhile, and amazingly enough, not too much swearing, but it's finished.

I'm not 100% happy with it, but as a first it's ok.

I ordered some zips from Zipit on Etsy but they haven't arrived yet so I searched through my stuff to see if I had a zip. I found one that I've had for years.

It was brown! Rather ironic with all the "no to brown" stuff happening with the Mouthy Stitches Swap.

So another ferret around in my stash to find some co-ordinating fabric that I could live with. I must say, I was tempted to make a really brown pouch and post it on Flickr as my pouch ready to go to my partner. I decided I should be nice, not naughty.

I found a solid to make the tabs at the end of the zips and an internal pocket. It was a waste of time making the tabs, as it turned out the zip was too long for the purse and so the tabs disappeared. Below, this is all that's left of one end.

I referred to Ayumi's tutorial to make a pocket for inside the pouch but I didn't use her tutorial for the actual pouch. The pocket worked well.


I'm going to try a different tutorial next time. I'm not going to tell you whose I did use this time.

Next time I'll be using either a shorter zip or making the pouch larger. The zip to pouch ratio was all wrong.

There was too much interfacing on this pouch too, so next time I'm going to only use one piece of interfacing on each side, not two on each side. It's made it really bulky at the seams, even though I've trimmed it.

If anyone from Mouthy Stitches is reading this and is very worried that I'll be making their zippered pouch, I'm going to make a few more before I work on THE one.

You can breathe a sigh of relief. I promise it won't be brown.