Pouch Making Extravaganza

I'm a pouch making machine! I am running out of time to make all of my Christmas presents before I see my friends for various gatherings so I am sewing late into the night to get them all done! Yikes!

This one has been long waiting. I have had a small piece of this lovely dogwood bloom fabric in pond colour, but I wasn't sure how to use it. With the arrival of this checkered grey fabric and the addition of a black satin ribbon, it was finally ready to be showcased.

I managed to make two rows of pockets for the interior, so there are 4 useful pockets inside!

The back also has the same design as the front, but with more simple flower patterns.

I know just the person to give this to for Christmas, but I have no idea if she will like it. I have my fingers crossed.

This is another zipper pouch with a similar dogwood bloom print in berry. It is such a delicious colour!

It matched perfectly with a pale pink fabric with black dots, so that became the interior lining. I found that this colour of zipper looked much better than a pink zipper because that would have been too much pink! This colour of zipper matches with the flower stems, so that the overall look is more sophisticated. I did, however, choose a rose coloured thread for the stitching beside the zipper so that it blends in.

Both of the pouches have heavy interfacing for the exterior, but the pond coloured pouch has microfleece for the interior and the berry coloured pouch has quilting batting.

I find that heavy interfacing is relatively stiff so I like to have something soft under it to soften the overall look and feel. Microfleece creates a thinner pouch and quilting batting makes a slightly more padded pouch. I'm not sure yet what the preference will be on the user-end, so hopefully I can get some feedback from my friends about that.

Here are some more pleated pouches using the same design as Joanne's pleated pouch from yesterday. I was only planning to use this yellow floral print called "Simply Sweet" as an interior lining, but I found that it made a really pretty exterior fabric.

My dad really liked this pouch. Too bad it's too girly for him to use :)

He especially appreciated the chestnut print on the interior. I think this chestnut print is adorable.

Finally, here is a pleated pouch in a wonderful fabric by Tina Givens. I adore it. It is my favourite fabric out of all of my new fabric stashes. There's something about this fat bumblebee and the patterns around it that is just perfect. The colour is quite nice too!

I used that same yellow floral pattern on the inside because it made me think of honey, which is very fitting for a bee-themed pouch!

I'm still trying to decide if I want to put wristlet straps onto these pleated pouches. It is a lot more work to add them, and I would need to buy the supplies for loops and other attachments. I didn't like the sewn-on fabric strap that I made for the first pleated pouch because it seemed too flimsy and it can't be removed.

So, for now, it's more of a clutch pleated pouch than a wristlet.

Okay, so one last one. This is a flat bottomed pencil pouch. This is the first time I have made a flat bottomed pouch, and I have discovered that it is very time-consuming to get the corner made just right.

However, with a little time and patience, it turned out great. Since this pencil pouch is for my sweetie, it's very manly. No cutesy fabrics for him! He chose a dark grey wool. The interior is a lovely, thick black fabric that is smooth almost like satin, but not shiny. It's thick texture makes it great for the lining because it doesn't need any kind of additional padding. It's a little harder to work with though because it has some elasticity.

Okay, time for some rest.

Have a great weekend!

UPDATE 04/30/2011

If you would like to make the pleated pouch, the pattern and instructions can be found in my shop http://bluepandemonium.etsy.com

You can also purchase the PDF sewing pattern through this secure link to Paypal