quilted open wide zippered pouch

Now that my grad school applications are submitted and I'm just waiting and waiting and waiting, I've had some more time for fun stuff. Or rather, stuff I want to do. Egged on by the pretty fabrics I saw (and purchased) in San Francisco recently, I decided I wanted to sew a few clothing items. But before I take on anything that needs to fit and flatter, I needed to get my sewing mojo back. So I tackled a smaller, more manageable project aka Noodlehead's Open Wide Zippered Pouch.

The tutorial is very well written and easy to follow. Plus it's a fast project that creates something useful. I'd definitely recommend reading the instructions before you begin. Ask me how I know. 

It literally took me a whole night just to decide on fabrics. I just couldn't decide what looked good. I finally settled on scraps from a quilt I made in 2012. Which incidentally still needs binding. Ahem.

Anyway, I love these colors together, but because they are all solids I thought the bag needed something more. I quilted the back on the diagonal....it's just some cotton batting sandwiched between the outer fabric and some muslin. After quilting the back, I couldn't handle that much quilting again so I only added a bit to the patchwork front. I kinda like the differentiation.

I ended up modifiing the size of the 'Large' so that it was taller. I have plenty of small pouches, so I wanted a project bag for a cowl I am knitting. 14" x 14" pattern pieces ended up working perfectly.

The lining is some Amy Butler fabric I picked up at a fabric warehouse in San Francisco. Not a perfect match color wise, but it's pretty. 

I added a little leather tie to the zipper...it ended up being my favorite part.

See my knitting project? I'm knitting the Chevron Stripe Cowl with Anzula Sebastian on my Dyakcraft needles. Dreamy!

Lauren