Friday 31 August 2012

Zippered Pouch & a New Fabric Swap



This embroidered strip piece was done a few months ago but was set aside since I wasn't ready to tackle the zipper yet at the time.     The embroidering idea came from Lu Summer's blog, where she shared a new idea on how to use her Summerville fabric collection back then.




I've used the Town print in coal and stitched the prints using Anchor Marlitt embroidery threads.   I love the luscious colours and the high luster of the rayon gives a silk look finish.   The Marlitt embroidery thread is a beautiful, 4 strandable thread but little did I know that it's also slippery to work with!   With each stitch I made, it had a tendency to want to slip back the way it came, which often let to loose, unsightly stitches.   I've pulled a little more firmly and that caused the fabric to pull...  if there's a good method to working with rayon thread, please share, I'd love to know!



front of pouch














back of pouch













I've appliqued these 1" hexies for the back and used medium weight interfacing to add body to the linen fabric.



I've added a pocket strip to the lining fabric to hold my notions / sewing kit - easier to look for them since the pouch is deep.



Notice the cube pincushion on my zipper pull?   Well... while I was catching up on my blog reading a few days ago,  Lucy of Charm About You shared two tutorials during her turn on the Let's Get Acquinted Blog Hop hosted by Beth at Plum and June.   This cute pincushion using English Paper Piecing method was one of it.   I've copied her cool idea adding the 1 1/2" finished cube to the zip!
 


The finished project pouch measures at 10" width x 11 1/2" height - a great size to accommodate an 8" embroidery hoop.   This is my first zipper pouch project and for the most part it was pretty easy.   All in all, eventhough the front and back pieces wasn't pieced closely to the zipper, I am pleased with the way it turned out.   I still need to master the zipper technique though. 



Just to share with you about this fun swap Making Rebecca Lynne is doing that I signed up for yesterday.   It's a Low Volume Swap where each participant buys two designer fabrics ( large ratio of white or neutral colour ), one yard each and cut them into 5" squares, mail them to her and we will receive 112 charm squares of different fabrics in return.   We're supposed to post our fabric picks on the Low Volume flickr group so that there are no duplicates.   It will be exciting to see what everyone else picked and what I'm going to be getting!   I've contacted Rebecca with regards to shipping the fabrics directly from the online store to her.   She was more than happy to accommodate and even offered to have the fabrics cut out for me!   How sweet is that!   Now on to some fabric shopping...


Hope you'll have a lovely weekend! 


I'll be linking up with Katie's Handmade Parade at There and Back

25 comments:

  1. Liebe Farahlin,

    schön mal wieder von Dir zu lesen.
    Das ist ja eine tolle Stickerei geworden und hinten die Hexies, einfach super schön.
    Du machst immer so wunderschöne Sachen.
    Liebe Grüße Grit

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  2. Wow, I love this zipped pouch! The embroidery and the little hexies are fabulous and the little pin cushion/zipper pull is just brilliant. Hope your weekend is going to be a happy one. V x

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  3. This is a beautiful pouch. I love the embroidery and that pin cushion cube rocks!

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  4. Your pouch and embroidery look adorable!

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  5. Well done! that is really good for your first pouch. It is really beautiful. The little cube is a fantastic idea and I love the hexies. A lot of work in that pouch!

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  6. You did a great job with the zipper pouch. The embroidery is just beautiful and the hexies are so cute. Beautiful.

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  7. That pouch is adorable. Love the embroidered little houses!

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  8. What an awesome pouch! And that tiny little cube is fantastic!

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  9. Love the embroidery!
    The whole pouch looks great, but the embroidery really steals the show

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  10. This is beautiful! I am taking part in the low volume swap too! Looking forward to seeing your choice of fabric!

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  11. Wow! I love everything about this pouch. I have a bit of the same fabric, but it never occurred to me to use it for embroidery. I love the way you highlighted it by using just one strip. Of course I adore the hexies and the incursion zipper pull is the perfect finishing touch. There is a good chance I will be stealing that idea!

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  12. Just love your pouch.... :o)

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  13. Wow! That is so cute - love the embroidery and the hexies!

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  14. Lovely pouch think the houses are fabulous.

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  15. The pouch is amazing!! I'm totally using that idea! I love the summersville as a focus strip - brilliant. The cube pincushion looks fab too, thanks so much for the shout out :)

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  16. Your sewing pouch is just adorable! And I love the fabrics you picked for the low volume swap!

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  17. Hello Farah,

    Fantastic job on the embroidery on the pouch. The little cube is so cute, so much work involved in your pouch.

    Happy days.
    Bev.xoxo

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  18. Oh... love your cute pincushion and the embroidery is beautiful!!

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  19. I love the strip of embroidered Summerville fabric! sorry I can't offer any help with the rayon thread, I've never used it.

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  20. Your embroidery is done so well! The back is just as pretty too! And the cute little cube pincushion just adds even more to the loveliness of this pouch! Love it!!

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  21. Love the pouch! Hexies and embroidery- what's not to love?

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  22. What a gorgeous pouch!!! Love the beautiful embroidery and the cute cubed zipper pull.

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  23. Cantik pouch itu!! Love the cube too! and thanks for sharing the links.. teringin juga nak mencuba.. :D

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  24. Hi Farah, what a lovely blog. Keep it up!

    Sim

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