The Make Stuff Zip Pouch

At a recent guild meeting, I got talking to the lovely Saira of Olive & Flo Handcraft who came to run a pop-up shop.  We were chatting about solids and she was selling the Art Gallery Pure Elements solids among the many prints on her stall.  Sarah Ashford and I offered to make something from Pure  Elements to showcase to how beautiful they are to work with as we all thought they were a range that can easily get looked over.  As with all Art Gallery woven cotton, they are lighter weight than solids like Kona and have a silkier feel.  We each chose four colours, Saira sent us a fat quarter of each and we got to work.  This is what I came up with, The Make Stuff Zip Pouch.

The colours I worked with were: Cozumel blue, Banana Cream, Crystal Pink and White Linen.  I thought these made a summery happy combination, the sort of colours I like to look at all year round and especially when it's not summer!  I recently had a birthday and my husband bought me lots of Aurifil appliqué threads and I knew I wanted a zip pouch like this to put them in.  I drafted the letters as a starting point and then turned to a beautiful Courthouse Steps Sewing Bag that Penny (Sewtakeahike) made me a from some amazing embroidered silk.  I treasure it and use to keep my small 50wt Aurifil spools neatly organised and all in one place.  The pattern she used was from Natural Patchwork by Suzuko Koseki.  I remembered a similar one in Patchwork Style, the first of her books that I bought many years ago and still love to look through.  I adapted the pattern diagrams with a combination of instinct and fudging and made it work with the foundation paper pieced text, double zip and the thread spools. The big bonus of Pure Elements is that even with the tiny piecing where 1/4" seams end up layered upon each other, the bulk is reduced and there's no lumpiness. The front and back bag panels are layered with batting and lining and quilted.   I also used Pure Elements for the top and side sections(with a single layer of fusible interfacing), as well as the handles panel lining.  

I'm so pleased with the pouch, it's just how I imagined.  I didn't sketch it out, instead, I relied on the image in my mind's eye and kept on going until it worked!  The prints were from a scrap bag I bought from Saira and my own scraps.  The inside seam was finished with some vintage pre-made bias binding and sewn on in one pass.  It could be neater- the corners are so tricky with this shape- but it passes even my critical eye.  The double pull zip was in my stash, you can find similar at Rose Garden Patchwork, it helps with the opening and access on a project like this.  Thank you Saira for providing the fabrics for this project, I'm very happy that I get to keep this one!  Keep a lookout for what Sarah does with hers too, I'm looking forward to seeing...