Sunday, July 15, 2012

A Better Zippered Pouch

The comments to my last post about zippered pouches had some really great links and advice, which is why I have two better zippered pouches to show off today.


These are sewn from cotton upholstery fabric liberated from my sister's stash. (She's moving and has to sell her house, so if you know anyone who wants to move to Middleboro, MA, and likes old sprawling houses, let me know.) (Also, I'm very, very sad she's moving even farther away. The fabric only helps a little.)

So anyway, it's a thicker cotton, and a sturdier-feeling pouch. Naomi shared this tutorial link, which helped immensely in two ways. Firstly, I added a line of machine topstitching on either side of the zipper, which easily and immediately elevated the pouch into something more polished. It also eliminates any sticky-zipper issues. Secondly, I followed the tutorial's helpful tips on pinning the outer-fabric side first and how to position the zipper teeth. Once the zipper is in and it's time to sew all the sides up, the whole thing is so bulky in the middle it doesn't lie flat, and I was struggling, on my own, with how to approach it. Yay for helpful tutorials and helpful commenters who direct you to them!

My three-year-old daughter claimed one of these as soon as she saw them. I decided the other one was a perfect new home for all those cards I was trying to squish into a too-small pouch.


This photo gives you a good view of the topstitching and how neatly the zipper lies now. Also you can see that I lined the pouch with the same fabric. I have a lot of it, and it just seems like it will put up with a lot of abuse. I really like it as a zippered pouch, but I'm out of zippers that match it (for now, anyway!). I think this fabric will also make a nice tote, so that's in the works, too. You know, eventually.

A couple of quick, unrelated things:

* After a bit of a break, I'm back at my other blog, too, because it's the best place to talk about any homeschooling/life-learning topics and activities. (I suspect it might be in transition for a bit.)

* I had my annual physical not too long ago, and I had him run another celiac panel, because last year my tTG number was falling but still not normal. This year it's about four points above the normal reference range, what the doctor called "not clinically significant." I'm really happy about this because I hope it means my body is just about healed from all the damage I unknowingly did to it.

Hope you had a great weekend! I expect I'll have some things to share this week from the Pages and Paint online workshop, which started out great last week.

11 comments:

Michelle said...

Awesome!!!! For the test results and the zippers AND the workshop. Can't wait to see what you've been doing with pages and paint.

Also, what did jill make with that upholstery fabric, because it's super cute and I'm nosey like that.

Naomi said...

Oh I'm so glad the tutorial was helpful. I can understand your daughter claiming one immediately - super cute!

Bells said...

Upholstery fabric! What a good idea. I have some. I'll use it!

Emma (GirlAnachronismE) said...

I love that pouch, the fabric reminds me of licorice allsorts!

Donna Lee said...

I think I'd love a sprawling house in Massachussettes (god, I can't spell it) but moving is not in the cards.

The pouches are great. I love that the internet has made making all of these things so much easier.

Jill said...

Hey, Michelle. I mostly made book covers out of it. I hate the fact that brown paper book covers (for my teen & tween) only last 1/2 the year. It takes about 10 minutes to make a book cover out of upholstery fabric and it lasts for years. Sadly, though, we seldom find that a book cover fits a second book perfectly. Amy, I wonder if more fabric will help more?

lamina@do a bit said...

They looks great Amy... it is very addictive making pouches and so satisfying when they turn out great :)

lamina@do a bit said...

Oh and ps. I recieved your wonderful post cards.. they are so gorgeous.... thank you !!! :)

Karen Isaacson said...

great news on your test results! awesome fabric on your pouches. looking forward to seeing what you've been up to in class.

Cameron said...

I love to keep my various club and reward cards in a zippered pouch in my purse, too....but the one I have isn't nearly as cute as yours!

I'm sorry to hear your sister is moving :(
Having family near sure is nice...

But, congrats on the test results! Hope you are feeling prouder and stronger of your amazing human body!

All my best,
Cameron

Sally said...

Zippered pouches are just so useful. Yours looks very good. You know you're on a winner when the three year old wants one :)