Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Quilt As You Go Zippered Pouch...

I'm on a roll making zippered pouches. It's very satisfying and becoming quite addictive. I don't think a girl can have too many.

QAYG Zippered Pouch... create your own quilted fabric and make a zippered bag ~ Threading My Way


Choosing fabrics was very easy for this one, as I used a recently purchased a fat quarter bundle, with all fabrics from the same fabric line ~ Figures, by Zen Chick, for Moda Fabrics.


Co-ordinating fabrics is not something that comes naturally to me, but with practise it is getting easier. By using fabrics from the same line I knew there would be fewer difficulties, as much of the work has already been done. Having said that, I still played for quite a while with the 16 fabrics in the fat quarter bundle. 

I ended up sticking to just two background colours and arranging them by alternating light and dark. As well as the colours, the busyness of the prints came into play. As they're all basically line drawings, no one fabric overpowered the rest.


During January, I asked for reader comments on why some of my fabric combinations had worked and others had not. I learnt a lot from those comments. The Colorful Fabriholic mentioned contrast, colour values and suggested taking a black and white photograph of the fabrics...


And so I changed one of my photos to black and white. I know I should have taken the photo before I cut the fabric, but I was fairly confident this combo would work. With the black and white photo, I can more readily see the dark / light contrast. Without the colour, the actual prints on the fabric are more apparent. I am going to use this tip in the future, especially if I'm pulling random fabrics from my stash.


The zipper is added using the open wide zippered pouch tutorial. The construction is such that it works beautifully every time. And I've used this method many times now.

QAYG Zippered Pouch... create your own quilted fabric and make a zippered bag ~ Threading My Way

Apart from the white strip at the top, the pouch is made from one piece of quilt as you go fabric, so there's no seam across the bottom.

I've since made a second pouch the same way and have taken some photos along the way, so when I post about that pouch I'll give you the dimensions and show you how I constructed the fabric.


You can see that I've taken the photo above at a different time. It's amazing how different lights affect a photo. I have so much to learn about taking photos.


I'd love to keep this project for me, but it's a present, so I made a drawstring gift bag from the same line of fabric - two gifts in one. You might recognise the fabric as being the same as in the Sand & Sidewalk Boardshorts. 16 fat quarters is actually quite a lot of fabric, so there's plenty left to make something for me.

Do you like to experiment with fabrics, or do you prefer to play it safe and stick to curated bundles?

... Pam

8 comments:

  1. I really like the pouch. I just wanted to ask...would it show differently with a white background. The background looks blue. I like to experiment with fabrics..I can surprise myself, but I do like the bundles as well! Thank you, Pam!

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  2. I'm a chicken - I play it safe! I love fabric sets, or a single print and then something that really/obviously goes with it :D When in doubt, you can put things on a design wall, walk out of the room for a while, then walk in and quickly glance - your first instinct will very likely be right - yay or nay!

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  3. Another cute pouch, Pam! Love the butterfly pull. That black and white photo is a great tip...I never thought of seeing contrast that way! Since I do not quilt, I don't buy bundles. I go with what feels right for me, while playing safe. And I usually end up buying more fabrics to match...because I do not have enough "safe" matching fabrics in stash ;P

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  4. Was there any particular reason you left your zipper so long? I know some people who prefer this to cutting the zipper to size. :) It looks great and you did a fantastic job. I love your use of straight lines for the quilting instead of something that would overpower the fabric details. Are those 1/4 inch spaced?

    Sorry about all of the questions, but I like to have all of the information in case I want to try my hand at this one day.

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    1. Thanks, Michelle. More than happy for you to ask as many questions as you want.

      Re the length of the zipper: Noodlehead's tutorial suggests cutting the zip so it extends about 1" past the bag, to allow the bag to open quite wide. I rather liked the look of a longer zip, so, even though I cut it to make it shorter, I've still made mine a little longer than the tutorial.

      My quilting lines are roughly ⅜" apart.

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  5. You are the queen of pouches! Each one is even nicer than the last.:) Thank you for sharing the tip you received in your comments. I'll have to give it a try. I definitely still struggle with combining different fabrics.

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  6. Your pouches are just so great.....I love the longer zipper on top and the butterfly pull.....Will look forward to the tutorial of putting one together....Are you able to share the pattern? I also like hos you make the bag to put the pouch in for the overall gift......You are so talented and good at quilting.
    Oh, another question.....Can these be made without quilting them?

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  7. Sorry for all the questions....just one more...what is the finished size?

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