Quilted pencil pouches and more

Custom made quilted pencil bags

Finally these pencil pouches are done and delivered! I love to gift handmade stuff to family and friends. Few weeks ago I gifted a quilted pencil pouch to my friend's daughter and she called up a few days later placing order for 5 pencil pouches. Apparently her daughter's friends wanted one too. Alhamdulillah! 

She leaves it up to me for the fabric choice, so I went ahead and made 7 pouches. Actually I started with 8 pouches but I cut one a little but wonky so I cut and made a small coin pouch with it! 

These pencil cases measured about 8" W x 4" H. It's perfect size for pencils and other stuff too, like crochet hooks and spectacles! It's multi purpose. It's fun and easy projects to make. I made a work flow video HERE when I was making the previous pencil pouches. 

To make this pencil quilted pouch, here's what you need:

Exterior fabric - 9" x 5" - cut 2 

Lining Fabric - 8.5" x 4.5" - cut 2

Batting - 9" x 5" - cut 2 

Lightweight fusible interfacing 9" x 5" (only if you are using lightweight fabrics- optional)

9" long all purpose (size 3) zipper. 

If you want to make Non quilted version, you can skip the batting and use all purpose fusible woven interfacing instead. 

For the construction, please refer to THIS VIDEO of making coin purse. Well, quilted pouch takes a little bit of time to make but I find the result is better. 

Quilted Zipper Pouches

I will put these zipper pouches in my Website as well as Etsy for custom order. These pouches make a great birthday party favors too, don't you think? 

Last week of January highlights: 

Made linen Kodomo wallet for a repeat customer early this week. 

Alice in Wonderland Wallet

And with the leftovers I made simple coin purses.

Coin Purses

Received a wonderful feedback for the mini keychain wallets
 

Finally added a few hand woven (handloom) cotton fabrics in the shop!

That's all for today, thank you for stopping by!

Happy sewing,

Elvira

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Block Print Quilted Pouches

Pink Quilted Zipper Pouch

I really love Indian floral patterns, especially paisley! I have a few yards of paisley fabric in my fabric shop that I'm saving for future projects, like this zipper pouch. Just like fashion, Indian fabrics follow trends. I had only a fat quarter of this baby pink paisley left, so I decided to make something quick and easy.

When working with soft cotton fabric, I usually add interfacing, either lightweight non-woven interfacing or all-purpose woven interfacing to give it more structure. And then I added batting and quilted it. I quilted it straight line about 1/4 inch apart. The result is spacious and soft zipper pouch. The size is just perfect to keep in your bag. They are really a multi-purpose pouch, you can use it as a pencil case, glass case, makeup bag or even as a simple zipper wallet. 

Block print quilted pencil pouch

Here are more pouches I made from block print fabrics. The coin pouches with keychains are my favourite to make, and they also make great gifts. My sister picked up a few to gift to her colleagues and they loved it. 

 

Yellow paisley keychain wallet

Block print coin purses 

I have a video tutorial in HERE showing you how to make these coin pouches from start to finish. This is a scrap-buster-friendly project since you literally only need a little bit of fabric. And if you don't sew and looking for a sustainable yet affordable gift, these quilted pouches are available in my ETSY SHOP and WEBSHOP. 

That's all for today. Thank you for stopping by!

Have a nice day :)

Elvira

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Slim Zipper Pouches

 

Slim Pencil Cases

I have not done much sewing since Ramadan started but I have a few projects that are ready to sew when the mood strikes and I have time. Yes, bacthing your work does help! I have many projects (mostly wallets and small bags) that are ready to sew now. 

Today I finished these 3 slim pouches. I've always wanted to make these pouches. They are so useful to keep a few pens or digital pens, ear pods, or even brows and lipstick, and eyeglasses. 

I used the small size template from the Trapeze Zipper Pouch pattern and added 2 inches length-wise. I placed the template 1" away from the fold and then cut the fabric piece accordingly. 

I created the templates in such a way that's easier for you to resize them. Just like these pouches. Here's the comparison with the original size. They are so cute! 

Watch Now: How to make a quilted zipper pouch

These pouched are quilted and my current fave is walking foot style quilting. Well, I am using my Jack sewing machine so I do not really use the walking foot. But the Teflon foot that I am using works out fine. 

I added a wooden zipper pull using the suede string. I have a couple of suede strings I bought (impulse buying) from Amazon, and glad I can use them. 

Striped Pencil Pouch 

Ikat Pencil Case

Block Print Indigo Pencil Case

This is a super-duper easy project that you can sew over the weekends. I have the videos for the quilted version and the faux leather version on my Youtube Channel. I am thinking of making a couple faux leather slim pouches next, maybe sometime next month. Right now, a lot of things going on, and my mind is sort of all over the place. First thing firts! 

Thank you for stopping by! 

Happy Sewing,

Elvira 

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Use code CVG20 to get 20% off on the Pattern Only 

Scrappy Patchwork Pouch

Another scrappy patchwork but this time it's a flat pouch!! I made few quilt as you go pouch few weeks ago from the scrap bag I keep near my sewing machine. The bag is overflowing with my recent scraps now and waiting to be sorted out. 

I took out a bunch and started playing with it for fun. I made 4 scrappy blocks and each is around 5" squares. And since I got new faux leather sheets, I decided to try to combine it. 

I use cotton batting, a scrap batting from my flying geese quilt and quilt it around 1/4" apart. I really love the effect of dense quilting on the pouch. I used high grade faux leather here. The color is almost salmon pink, a bit darker.

I added small slip pocket inside. I love the cute bear print lining. I found it in my stash! So glad to finally use it. 

I added this pretty pouch in the SHOP in case you want it ^^. The pouch dimension is 8.5" W x 5.5" H.

Working with patchwork is really fun, especially scrappy one. If you have orphan block lying around and want to try your hand on making patchwork bag, you might want to try THIS PATTERN.

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Sewing,

- Elvira - 

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Sew Small Things

Hello,

I really love sewing small things, be it a pouch, bags or quilts. Last month, being the holiday season, I made a couple of cute little sling bags for the nieces and for my friends' daughter too. 

I made this cats and arrow sling bags  for Zahra and Zoya. They chose the fabric a few months ago when they came to visit us. 

I chose this simple one from one of my Japanese patterns. A simple straight forward sling bags and the size is just perfect for little girls.

This one I made for Afra, since I made the gadget case for his brother, I decided to make one mini sling bag for her. This one was the original pattern, with darts on the corner. 

It turned out really cute that one can make a pouch instead of sling bag. Trust the Japanese to make cute little patterns. 

The book didn't come with a pattern, but gave detail measurements. I made my own pattern based on the measurements given in the book.

I love the simple rounded corner version though. It's really a quick project to make. 

 This Frozen sling bag I made for Jasmine, Eva's daughter. It's a long due. 

 For the strap, I did not use any interfacing, since it's for a little girl, I thought as soft strap would be better. 

perfect size to carry her fave stuff

  Subha who always helped me with my visa, whenever I travelled, asked for a specs cover. I was not sure whether it was for the sun glasses or for reading glasses, so I made in-between size.

The fabric was a patchwork print fabric so I just need to quilt it and added fun wooden button and elastic. Instant cuteness!

Simple sewing is always fun and when it's done using fun fabrics, it always turned out perfect.

What about you? What are you sewing this week? 

Until then,

(Mini Tutorial) How I do my Foundation Piecing Quilted Pouch

Hello again,

I hope you all had a great weekend. Well, I did. Last Saturday the boys went to school picnic and would be back by evening. That means I have a whole day and afternoon free. Woohoo!

I was working on one custom order of mini sling bag, but my mind kept wandering to the bag under my computer table. The Pandora bag (not box) that hold my  Quilted Bag Kit from my bestie, Winda. She gave it to me 2 years ago when we met in Jakarta. The kit was a bag kit and she already started making 2 or 3 blocks. So I put away what I was working on and pulled out the bag, sorting out the pieces, interfacings, batting, etc. That was on Friday evening. The next day, after the boys were out of the house and a quick housework,  I started piecing the blocks and here's my pouch. 

At first, I thought of making a tote bag after I saw this Instagram Post. Then decided to do less ambitious one first.

Here's what I learned during the weekends. 

Many blogs wrote about using Freezer Paper for foundation piecing, which is not available here in North East India (or even India for that matter). The kit (it's Japanese Craft Kit) used a fusible stabilizer which is a thicker version of what we called "pasting" in here.  That is a thin lightweight nonwoven fusible interfacing. So I tried using our own desi interfacing and it worked like a charm. Yay! I remake the pattern on my computer based on the original size and print it on the interfacing. I cut the interfacing slightly smaller than the A4 size paper, fuse it lightly on the paper and run it through the printer, et voila! No more tracing pattern one by one !! (it's the same method I used for this DIY Printed Label)

 I didn't really follow the pattern instructions. What I did as cutting a strip of fabrics that will be used and do it like quilt as you go method. 

First, lay the 1st piece of fabrics on the glue side of the interfacing, right sigh up. 

Then place Fabric No. 2 on top of fabric No.1 right side together matching the seam. Make sure that when you flip the fabric (no.2), it will cover the triangle no. 2 plus around 1/4" seam allowance. 

Flip it to the reverse side, pin and sew on the line 

Like this

Now open fabric no. 2 away from the seam and finger press. 

Trim fabric No. 2 so that it has 1/4" seam allowance. 

Continue in the same manner until you cover the template. Don't be discouraged when it looks ugly ^v^.

Because after you trim the excess fabrics you will get this pretty little blocks.

Reverse Side After trimming

Aren't they cute?

Front View

I almost proud of my self (well, I do actually) to be able to complete this. Paper Piecing is something that I always feel it's difficult and a lot of work. Especially if I have to trace the pattern one by one. 

After an hour here what I got!

Blocks size : 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" after trimming

After lunch and a quick nap, I started working on the pouch. I decided to do hand quilting. Hand quilting is one thing that I always want to do. I realized with the right batting, hand quilting is so easy to do. And if you have your fave Korean drama on, it's the better. It's like killing 2 birds with one stone. LOL. 

Hand Quilting with Gutterman Cotton Thread

I didn't tear off the interfacing since I am making a pouch and I love a slightly structured pouch, so the interfacing will work out great. I just needed to add the batting. 

Front Side 

I used Sevenberry fabric for the back of the pouch. Isn't that lovely? I picked up the fabric during my visit to Indonesia last year. 

Sometimes, we have to face our fears and just do it. Sometimes things look difficult and complicated until you actually do it.

So, what are you making this week? 

Until then,

Happy Sewing, 

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Bagmaker Tuesday

Finish it up Friday