Sunday, May 1, 2011

Pretty {little} Pouch Swap

 
 I made this cute little zippered pouch for my very first secret swap partner. Tomorrow I am going to package it up with a few little surprises and send it off across the globe to its new home. I love the idea that someone right now is making something special for me too... Secret Swaps are like surprise birthdays! It's all very exciting, I think I might be addicted.

The Pretty {little} Pouch Swap was organized by Michelle Lizcano of I Like Orange, Too! and Kelly from KelbysewsIts a wonderful group, everyone in the swap has been so involved and it is like a storm of inspiration over there. Besides the creative fun, there is also the fun of internet stalking your swap partner and trying to decipher from little snippets of information what they really want. I think that my partner likes rainbow piecing. I'm not really giving away too much saying this because rainbow pieced projects may actually be turning into some sort of internet meme for the quilty/crafty set. I know that they feature heavily in my own Flickr favourites, which sort of surprised me, but who can resist beautiful colours? No one. That's who. I had a really good time pulling fabrics from my stash and arranging them into an attractive ROYGBIV. I had an even better time sewing them together into tiny hexagons.
The back of the pouch was inspired by the ocean. I free-pieced the aqua stripe and then cut it into a gentle wave. The tricky part was the curved piecing of the linen strips, but with a lot of pins, it worked out on the first try. I added some rows of handstitches to accentuate the wave pattern. My favourite part of the back are the sleepy moons from Heather Ross's Far Far Away 2.
 The inside of the pouch has a little label (sorry, pictures would give too much away!) which I made using a fine sharpie paint pen and a little square of white muslin. It took a some practice to write on the fabric without pausing and making ugly blobs, but once you get it right, it makes a really lovely permanent label. I found that taping my square of fabric down on a piece of cardboard made writing easier. Then I just folded and ironed all the raw edges to the back and sewed it to my lining fabric. If you were in a hurry (or if you forgot to make a label before your project was finished) you could use a little row of steam-a-seam tape instead.

The sun seems to finally be making regular appearances in the sky nowadays, hopefully this will lead to more pretty beach photos. Happy belated spring everybody :)

58 comments:

  1. This pouch is too pretty! I know that the person who receives it will be super happy. I'd personally be.

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  2. This looks absolutly gorgeous ! Great job.
    Love the combo with linnen.

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  3. That is so ridiculously adorable! I love it. :)

    ~Kristin

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  4. i looove it!
    i wish i was your swap partner :)

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  5. That pouch is so, so pretty! What a lucky swap partner!

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  6. You are so talented and creative! Love the pouches, they are beautiful.

    Hugs
    Julie

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  7. That pouch is beautiful, and I love both sides of it. Nice work!

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  8. I love that ocean inspired your Pretty {little} Pouch! It's just lovely. Well done! You can see my version here (a bit more traditional to match my partner's requests):
    http://birdandbicycle.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/pretty-little-pouch/

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  9. Gabrielle, your stuff is so adorable. All the time. Would you want to share something with us that you've made recently? ‎{Share the Love} link up party is starting tomorrow at mydomesticdesign.com! Please come link up!

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  10. Thank you Gabrielle! I love it so much! Every detail is perfect and I love all the goodies inside, too! I can't wait to photograph it at the Atlantic Ocean.

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  11. I am amazed with the beauty of your pouches, they are a piece of art...I. will try quilting just because I see how beautiful it is, my neighbor offered me to quilt but I told her I wasn t into it, I will ask her now lol
    The fourth picture it looks like the flag from my country Argentina,

    I lived down south from you in California :)

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  12. Lucky the girl that got that pouch, I am jelous lol

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  13. Awesome from both sides!!

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  14. What a gorgeous rainbow pouch! I love rainbows and hexagons! The handstitching is lovely as well.

    It's a treat to come across the blog of another Canadian quilter! I live in Vancouver and started the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. Have you heard of anyone interested in getting a Victoria Modern Quilt Guild going? (saw you were looking for members for the Unscripted bee and followed the link to your blog).

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  15. Love, love, love! Just headed over to sign up for the next swap!

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  16. This is the most beautiful pouch I ever saw. Love on its first sight.
    The pattern is your own?

    I envy you living next to the ocean.
    Just discovered your blog today and wonder what happened since there are no recent posts.

    Greetings from Hamburg
    Tally

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  17. can I ask how you sewed the hexie pieces onto the outer zip pouch fabric?

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    1. Hey Lilfish :) First I sewed all the hexies together by hand (the usual method everyone uses). Then I pinned them to the main body fabric and used an applique stitch to sew them to the outer fabric. Basically I used a very light ecru thread which dissapeared into the body fabric and very tiny stitches so that they wouldn't show. Hope that helps.

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  18. These are really pretty. I love both patterns!

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