Sunday 4 January 2015

Christmas Swap Number 3: Sweet Pouch Swap

And my third and last swap for Christmas was the Christmas Sweet Pouch Swap.  This is hosted by one of my favourite Aussie bloggers, Ros from Sew Delicious.  She runs a few Sweet Pouch Swaps each year, where each participant makes a pouch of some kind and fills it with some sweets.  This is the first time I've done the Christmas one ... but you know being absolutely into the whole swappy thing this Christmas, I thought I'd give this one a go too.  I love a pouch swap, 'cause it's a nice quick sew but allows for lots of creativity and a chance to make another new friend.  
I was partnered with the lovely Jess from Queensland.  She's a school teacher and when we were chatting via email and facebook, she mentioned that she'd love a largish (that's totally a word!) pouch that she can use to carry stationary and supplies around school with her.  Now, I figured that this needed to be an every day fabric, not a Christmassy style, so I decided to go with some florals for the pouch, but to Christmas-ify (yep, that's totally a word too ...I'm on a roll tonight!) it with some Chrissy sweets .  I headed down to my local fabric store and spent about half an hour playing with different fabric combinations in the fat-quarter section until I ended up with these four fabrics.  I liked the colour combos, and thought they were pretty and cheerful to use whilst at work.
Then I spent a week or so pondering a style before I remembered that my lovely friend Robyn from Sewing the Seasons posted about this pouch recently.  Robyn's pouch was smaller, so I just upsized the squares to make the pouch a little larger.  I loved the simple yet attractive style, and the cris-cross quilting just gives that extra point of interest.  Thanks Robyn!
So to make this pouch, I cut 6 x 3.5" squares from each fabric, and laid them out until I liked the design.  I basically followed Robyn's instructions to construct the pouch, which came together really quickly and I also used Ros' tutorial here about getting zippers just right, which helped so much.  This would probably be the neatest zip I've done to date ... zips still scare the bejeezus out of me, but I'm working on that.  I recently bought a bulk lot of 40 random coloured zips on ebay for $7.  My goal is to zip it on up this year and cure my zip-phobia ... so look forward to lots of zippy projects coming during 2015 ... you've been warned!
Oh and I mentioned previously that you'd see this design coming up in a few projects.  This is the Love Dream Laugh embroidery design from Melly & Me, and I'm in love with it.  I thought it was a cute little off-centre touch to the front of this pouch, and maybe a little inspirational for Jess while she's hard at work with those kiddos in school ... since Bethany started school I have a whole new appreciation for our amazing teachers!

And do you want to see what absolute gorgeousness Jess sent to me? ...
Yep, I received this lovely retro-style fabric pouch, complete with magnetic clip (well done Jess .... I've not been brave enough to try those yet).  I adore this little beauty!  It's the perfect size for taking some hand stitching or crochet along with me when Hannah starts ballet this year and I have a very rare 30 minutes of complete me-time while I'm waiting for her outside her class.  Just think of the handmade lovelies I can enjoy creating with this little pouch to hold it all together for me!
And not to mention the yummy treats inside ... OK, there may have been a few more treats than this when the package arrived at my place ... Bethany and I enjoyed a few a lot of lollies and a movie together while Hannah slept that day!
My favourite part of this pouch is the edging ... swoon!  Love it ... so pretty and delicate.  I need to find me some of that for the stash me-thinks!  A massive thank you again Jess, and a shout-out thanks to Ros for hosting this one too!

Anyway, so that's the end of the Christmas swap news for me this year.  Planning on participating in a few more swap throughout the year, but haven't decided which ones as yet.  They're lots of fun.  I have to admit though I've missed my little-girl-clothes sewing, and have already jumped back into some cute projects for their summer wardrobes now that Hannah's birthday (2 days before Christmas) and Christmas are over, and we're enjoying our summer break from school.  I've even got a couple of tutorials in the pipe-line, so stay tuned!