So many pouches!

Yes, there are 5 noodlehead open wide pouches in that picture.  And I made 8 total in the last 3 weeks.  Let me explain…

I made a pouch for my MIL last year that had a crossword puzzle pattern on the interior fabric.  She really loved it.  It was a kick to see how much she got a kick out of that fabric.  And I had a lot of various puzzle fabrics in my stash from a whimsical fabric buy.  And so I decided I wanted to make her a set of Noodlehead open wide pouches for Christmas.

I tried to make one of these in February of last year and it was a disaster.  These requiring boxing corners.  I hate boxing corners.  And I am bad at it.  And it required a zipper.  I was bad at zippers at the time.  Having conquered zippers and having an awesome new sewing machine, I thought it would be ok and try these bags again.

(I only got two rotten pictures of the pouches before I had to wrap them up to take to gift exchange.)

I didn’t have enough fabric for the whole outside of the biggest pouch.  So, well, duh, patchwork, right?

Loved them so much!  Love how they look… love the pattern… love the proces.  EXCEPT for boxing the corners. I remembered from making the Noodlehead poolside tote, that the pattern had little squares cut out of the bottom corners, making the boxed corners in that bag super simple.  So I boxed only one corner per bag, measured how big that square was, and now I can make these pouches by just cutting out the square and then matching up the edges.  SO MUCH EASIER. (for reference large = 2.5″, medium = 2.25″, small = 2″ for a 1/.2 inch seam allowance).

I loved working in this color scheme, and loved the puzzle fabrics.  And my MIL loved them too.  She does a lot of handwork, so pouches, especially pouches that open wide, are useful.  Although she may have enough now.

After making these, I was hooked.

Next up was a large wide open pouch for my schnitzel and boo partner featuring Preppy the Whale.  Preppy was fun to put together… and fit the bag width pretty well.  I like this block because it looks like the accuracy of paperpiecing but isn’t paperpieced.  woot. I paired with fabric from the Tula Pink Saltwater line.  I have had this fabric for a while – and this was a good project for it.

I used this cool blue print from the Joel Dewberry Birch line.  A good blue that lives between baby and aqua.  Matched well.  The pouch has the wee quilt and will get a few more goodies before it is sent away.

So then I really wanted some pouches for myself.  I have been really good about not buying fabric without a specific use.  Except for I bought some of all of the entire line of Priory Square.  Loved every single print in this line.  Beautiful bright florals and da-bomb low volume.  And that chainlink fence print.  I am bonkers for that fabric.  I have lived in a house with chain link fence for a long time – love this simple fencing made it into such a pretty fabric – so evocative for me.  I used this on the smallest pouch because I knew I would use this pouch the most – it has my sewing machine feet and needles.

And then the gorgeous low volumes for the interiors…. And I had the perfect matching zippers…. Such an awesome project and they are all mine, mine, mine.  🙂

So last up… wow, that is a lot of pouches… is my rainbow cross-stitch pouch.  I have been using a wonky three-zipper pouch that was hideous and hard to use for finding skeins of floss.  I was so over that bag.

And I love cross-stitch.  And I love rainbows. So much.  I don’t like working with scraps a whole bunch, but totally worth it for this rainbowy goodness.

And it is easy to find everything I need.  OPEN WIDE!  I used a precious Jennifer Paganelli print from Joann for the interior.

Okay, really, enough pouches.