Zipper Pouches at Flowerpatch - part 1

At the last Flowerpatch Quilter's meeting we had a mini workshop on making zipper pouches. Firstly we started to make up two pieces of stitch and flip patchwork for the outer sides. We did this sewing by hand and the room was filled with friendly chat and laughter all evening. We weren't expecting to finish these in the evening, but after an hour or so of sewing we learnt how to put our patchwork sides together with a zipper and lining to make up a pouch.

This is the pouch that Annie made up the very next day after the meeting! I love her FMQ quilting.

This post is a tutorial on how to make up the pouch outers and my next post will be on putting the pouch pieces and zipper together to make a small zipper bag. I have sewn this pouch side by machine, but hand sewing is equally as good.

I began with a piece of cotton wadding just a little larger than I wanted the outers to be (6" x 8") and lots of scrap fabric cut into squares and rectangles.

I laid a small piece of fabric on the wadding away from the edge and then auditioned a different fabric with approximately the same length side, next to it.

Happy with my choice I laid the second fabric on top of the first with right sides together, matching the edges. Pinned in place and sewed a seam, then finger pressed open.

I auditioned another piece which crosses the seam of the first two, and repeated the process.

and then again.

Now my pieces of fabric would be getting a bit larger than I wanted if I put one fabric all the way across, so I have auditioned these three fabrics and sewn them together, cutting to length before sewing them to the wadding. They go right to the edge of the wadding and may still look a bit large but some fabric will be lost in the bottom seam of the pouch.

I continued adding lines of fabrics, avoiding lots of seams meeting in the same place

When my wadding was completely covered I trimmed  the edges to neaten.

These are two other outers which I have made into a pouch and which after "stitching and flipping" I machine quilted in spirals which isn't absolutely necessary, but does add texture and interest.

I do wish that I'd taken my own advice and used two or more pieces of fabric in place of that long pale blue strip at the top of the left picture!!

And this is the pouch that I made from these two sides. In the left pic the pouch is flat and in the right pic I have made a boxy bottom to the pouch.

I think I rather like the boxy bottom!

My next blog post will be a tutorial on making up a zipper pouch, but in the meantime have a look at Sveltana's blog S.O.T.A.K. Handmade where she has links to 33 zipper pouch tutorials.

Happy Stitching - or maybe, if you're like me, there's more gardening than sewing at present, with this lovely Spring weather........ Anita x

PS Flowerpatch Quilter's next meeting is on Thursday 11th May when there will be a talk by Pat Mallet.