I had asked a friend of mine if she'd like a knitting needle case. She told me a knitting project bag would be more helpful: a bag about this big (held up her hands) with a zipper. Not what I had had envisioned, so I was glad I asked!
I googled around for zippered pouches about "this" big and got some ideas of what I wanted to do. I also found this tutorial, which was very helpful in putting it all together.
I have started work in my vintage Key West quilt and decided the smaller pieces of fabric would be great for the pouch. The grey fabric is from Parrot Plumes. I thought it looked terrific against the hot pink.
I stitched the outside fabric to the batting with a mix of stitch-in-the-ditch and freemotion. It's silly, because most of the freemotion is on the bottom where it can't be seen. Oh, well, I got practice. Added bonus: the pink rayon thread quilted beautifully. It had frayed and snapped on the last three projects I tried to quilt. I don't know why I decided to try again. It seems the fault wasn't with the thread; recent adjustments to my sewing machine did the trick. I had given up on using anything other than standard thread, but now I may have to look at the pretty stuff again.
I had stitched it all the side seams and was ready to turn it right side out when I discovered I overlooked the very important instruction in the tutorial: leave the zipper open before stitching the sides and bottom. Can't turn it inside out with it closed! I struggled with it several minutes inching the zipper open through the fabric and batting. Whew! I hated the idea of ripping out any of that good stitching.
Sharing with Freemotion by the River's Linky Tuesday.
Your zippered bag is very pretty, nice fabric combination, I'm sure your friend will love it. I tend to avoid zips myself, but I laughed at you forgetting to leave it open, so easy to do. I'm so glad you managed without taking it apart.
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