Have you seen the Sew Lux Fabric pouch of the month club?  I was recently sucked in by a friend at Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild.  Thanks, Eileen!  My previous experience with bags and zippers came at Eileen’s hand.  She taught us how to make the Sew Together Bag.

I signed up a few months ago, and I had two kits stacked up and nagging at me.  Last week I had a play date with Sherre, at SeaGlass Quilting.  I had a great time – we worked on our pouches together, had a tasty lunch, and Sherre showed me a lot of great information about how to run a quilting business.

So, back to the pouches.  I made a few rookie mistakes, like not measuring my zipper.  Thanks, Sherre, for the correction.  Zippers are some bad magic.

Goose Chase Pouch

My first finish was the Goose Chase pattern.  I embellished with some running stitches, using my Sue Spargo perle cotton*.  The hardest part was knowing when to stop embellishing.

I was very excited to find Aurifil in the exact same shade to finish the top stitching on the bag, too.

I spent a few minutes figuring out the right alignment to install my Dizzy Quilter tag, too.  If I were making this one again, I would do the math and use the four at a time flying geese method.  I just like that look so much better, and it gives me one less seam to match up.

Pom Pom Pouch

Once the first pouch was finished, I decided to take a crack at the remaining pouch. The Pom Pom Pouch went together relatively easily.

The technique was so different from the other one that it was a little confusing, but Sew Lux has great tutorials with lots of photos online.  They helped a lot.

I managed to get one side of the pom poms matched up perfectly.  I won’t be sharing photos of the other side.

Dachshund Pouch

I thought I was done playing for the day, but then I remembered that Deb had sent me an email with a link to a Dachshund pencil pouch.  With two zipper installations under my belt, I was ready to use up another.  The pattern calls for a 9 inch zipper.  The closest I had was 12″, so I used that.  It was purple, so that dictated my fabric choices.

Rather than cut the zipper down, I just installed it as it was.  It worked fine.

I am in love.  Both of my boys (20 & 15) declined a pouch gift.  I think I would do the next one a bit differently – I might add a strap to make it into a purse. I may as well be totally ridiculous.

Not a bad day’s work.  My husband suggested I sell the pouches.  Maybe.  Or, I might just be getting a jump on my Christmas gifting.