Teacher Appreciation Week {Day 3}

Okay, I'm a bit late in getting this posted.  This week has been a little nuts. I managed to get both quilts finished TODAY, as in before midnight, YIPPEE!!!  I also decided to open up my etsy shop again :o)  I've had so many ideas for new items and I want to start making other items to sell in my shop as well.  One of the things I am planning to make for my shop are these ruffled pouches.  Every time I give one as a gift, the recipient just loves them.  So for day 3 of Teacher Appreciation Week, I made each teacher a pouch.  They can be used for so many things...I have one for makeup, one just for my lipsticks/glosses, one for my sewing feet, one for first aid stuff I keep in my purse (I use this one all. the. time. because with my girlies, I can never be without neosporin and bandaids)

Tomorrow I am getting pics of the finished quilts....I am just loving the recess zig zag quilt, almost hate to give it away!!  I'll have to see if I can get a hold of another charm pack somewhere :o)

Ruffled Zipper Pouch Tutorial

So, I know there are a TON of tutorials online for making pouches, purses, cases, etc.  I'm just adding one to the list :o)

Isn't this fabric yummy??  Aunt Edna by Denyse Schmidt...love her!!  By the way, what is up with how much the price has gone up for her fabrics at Joann's??  Used to be $9.99 a yard and not always on sale so you could use a 40% off coupon and get it at a pretty decent price...now it's $12.99 a yard and always 30% off, making it $9 a yard and you can't use a coupon, very shifty, I tell ya!!  Anyway, hopping off my soap box!!

Materials you'll need:

1 ~ 7" zipper (I have recently started buying my zippers at Zipit on etsy.  The quality, price, shipping are unbeatable)

2 ~ 8"x6" outside fabric

2 ~ 8"x6" lining fabric

1 ~ 3" x 18" strip for the ruffle

2 ~ 8"x6" pieces of batting (could also use interfacing but I used what I had on hand)

1.  Fold over and press 1/4" of the ruffle fabric along the long side of the strip.  I hate frayed edges...it just annoys the crap out of me.  I hate how it ends up looking so ratty...so this is my solution :o)

2.  Once you have both sides pressed, start folding your pleats/ruffles.  I pin both sides because I don't like my ruffle looking all shifted when it gets sewn down...picky, aren't I??

3.  Layer ruffle, outside fabric, and batting.  Sew down ruffle, along the top and bottom of ruffle.  I pin the crap out of the ruffle and then don't pin it down, not sure why.  Pin it if you want to :o)

Sometimes you have to let out the last ruffle just to lessen the bulk on the side seams.

4.  Lay your zipper, face down, against the outside fabric.  Check your zipper placement to make sure you like how the pouch will open.  I like my pouches to have the zipper open to the right, close to the left.

Lay the lining fabric, print side down on top of the zipper.  Pin in place.  

5.  Using your zipper foot, stitch along the pinned portion of the zipper, removing pins as you go.  Go slowly, making sure the fabrics don't pucker and shift.

6.  Once you're done with the first side, repeat with the second side.  The outside fabrics will be right sides together and the lining fabrics right sides together.  Your layer will look like this ~ lining fabric, zipper, outside fabric, batting.  It was a little tricky to get a picture of the layers.

Here is the layer again top to bottom ~ lining, zipper, outside fabric, and batting.  Pin in place.

7.  Stitch down.  Careful of shifting fabrics!  If they every make a zipper/walking foot hybrid, that would be awesome!!

8.  Trim excess batting above the sewn line.  This will help eliminate the bulk around the top of the bag.  

9.  Just for an added touch, you can top stitch along the zipper. Use the zipper foot and pull sides apart as you stitch.  I pull pretty tightly since fabrics like to shift under the zipper foot.

9.  Here we are!  Ready to put the pouch together!  Unzip the zipper about halfway.  You will hate your life if you forget to do this!!

10.  When you start to line everything up, you will need to make sure your zipper sides push downward into the lining fabric. Do this to both sides, and pin all the way around.

Push the zipper down into the lining of the pouch.  It gets all funky if you don't.

Everything is pinned and ready to sew together!

11.  You're going to leave a 2" hole in the bottom of the lining fabric.  Start stitching about 3 inches from the corner.  I back stitch when I start and at every corner since I seem to be pretty hard on these pouches!

CAREFULLY sew over the zipper ends...I have snapped many a needle at this exact point.  Not safe, my friends, not safe!

12.  Once you sew all the way around, trim up the batting edges, clip the corners, and get your bag ready to turn inside out.

13.  Turn your bag, pushing out the corners.  You can either slip stitch, or machine stitch your lining opening.  I just machine stitch...again, hard on pouches!!

All done!!  Here it is, all ready to be filled with goodies!!

I'm crushing big time on the color grey at the moment....you'll have to forgive me if all of my sewing project have grey in them these days!

Nerds Rock Zipper Pouch

More pouches....it can't be helped!!  I am diggin these ruffly zippered pouches, even more because I use several each day.  One is for my makeup, one for inside my purse and holding my ZILLION lipsticks/glosses that oddly all seem to be the same color....don't judge!  One of my fave fabrics that I bought a few years ago is the Nerds Rock fabric.  I have no idea where I got it, but I bought a couple of yards, you know, "just in case." I'm finally starting to use it.  My daughters are both self-proclaimed nerds, which I adore.  They are both little book worms, reading absolutely everything they can.  Recently had to explain what "sanitary napkin" meant to my 8 year old.  My answer?  You wear it to stay clean.  She was baffled at why we would even think about wearing a napkin in underwear.  Don't want to have the talk with her just yet.  If she found out the real reason, she would FREAK out. Ah, ignorance really is bliss at 8 years old!  But I digress....here are the new pouches I finally got pics of:

 I got this grey fabric at Joann's recently...I bought about 6 yards of it because I just LOVE it!! And the diagonal stripes are just yummy!

 Aren't those little faces adorable??

There are so many tutorials out there, but I am thinking about making one for these cute little pouches...we'll see!

Weekend Roundup

This weekend my husband went overnight with the school's basketball team...he's the assistant coach for the varsity team.  I hate for him to be gone, but it's nice to spend time with my girls, just the 3 of us.  I picked up the girls after school and we got Happy Meals and Harry Potter.  Tradition in our house on Friday night is a picnic...spreading out a blanket and eating dinner together watching a movie.  My girls are loving Harry Potter right now.  It's a little freaky as it gets deeper into the story, but the first movie was relatively non-scary.  Anyway, the hubs forgot to turn off his alarm, so we were all up at 6 a.m. Saturday morning.  I could've killed him!  Not really, but oh my word.  My one day to sleep in!  That's okay...for the next 2 1/2 hours, I piddled around in my sewing room while my girls watched cartoons laying on the floor of my sewing room.  Hardly any room to walk around, but I love that they wanted to be in there with me!  I made a few zippered pouches and practiced my urban nine patch...lots of practice needed there!!

this one is my fave...perfect size to fit all my girly goodies in my purse so that no one has to see my stuff if they get in there!

Dayna snatched this one...and I made Emma one that has this cute fabric Nerds Rock on it...but I didn't get a picture of it before she snagged it.

Here is my first attempt at the inside block, LOTS of practice needed!!

 I know these will be pretty once done, but oh my word, they are a pain in the butt to get together!!

After a breakfast of eggs and bacon (in which Dayna just had to have over easy eggs, so she could make her plate have a smiley face), we got dressed and got ready to go to the quilt shop.  I haven't been in such a long time.  I really just wanted to walk around, look at the pretty fabrics, the quilts hanging from the ceiling, and enjoy being around other women who love quilting as much as I do.  The girls love going and sitting in the chairs while reading their books.  I knew they had just sent out an email with their new sale items featured, but I had no idea it would be a zoo!  We walked into my little quilt shop, FULL of people.  I don't do well in crowds, gives me all kinds of anxiety.  I think I walked around for about 45 minutes trying to focus on what I wanted to look at and not really looking at anything.  I hate crowds!!  Needless to say, after rounding the store 3 or 4 times, I found what I was looking for...Parisville.  It had gone on sale, finally, and I was so excited!  My girls helped me pick out several prints, and Dayna wanted to tell the lady how much to cut.  It was too cute!  I finally had had enough though....too many people in a little space was workin my nerves.

Not sure what I am going to do with this lovliness, but who cares?  Next for the day was my daughter's basketball game where she is a cheerleading machine.  Actually, Dayna is the machine...I have to prod Emma the whole game.  We won, the girls did great, and it was a great day.

Sunday, on the other hand, was another story.  The girls were great, but I was in the dumps.  I just can't seem to pull of this depression tail-spin.  I do great for a while, then can't seem to function.  Today, I feel just blah about everything.  I'm really a pretty positive, happy person...which is why I am not understanding this. At all.

Back to work today...hoping to work my way out of this funk.