For the first time ever, I joined an online swap. These type of things make me a bit nervous. I want to make something F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. and I worry that I won't get things done in time for the swap. One of my friends mentioned they were joining a zippy pouch swap and I thought--hmmmm, that is something I feel comfortable with. The coordinator is Heather Valentine and she has a website, "Scrappy Girls Club", along with a Facebook group. To join, we fill out a form with what types of colors we like or dislike, our sewing skill level and whether or not we want to swap within the US or internationally.
My partner is from Texas and likes Reds/Blacks/Oranges/Browns/Greens/Yellows (pretty much everything but blues!!). I wanted to try something new, so I scoured Pinterest and the interwebs and came up with all kinds of inspiration.
The first thing I made was a vinyl front medium sized pouch. Several years ago, I did a few things with vinyl and found it to be difficult-- but, that was the time before clover clips existed!! What a difference those make!!! Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, but the machine stitched binding was tricky (It's not perfect), so this will stay with me!
Next up was a cutie pie pouch with a bow. The process to make this was ---painful---. I followed a free online tutorial and it was not good. =( I love the style and creativity of this pouch, but it was so frustrating to follow along, that I was rather crabby by the time I completed it. After giving myself some distance, I came around and thought it was totes adorbs. So much that I gave it to Heather for her birthday! =)
Well-- I'm 2 pouches in and I don't have anything for my swap partner! Back to the drawing board! I found this pattern at the Polka Dot Chair. The original size was 8 x 12 and that was a bit bigger that I was interested in, so I scaled it down to 6 x 9 (I think?). It turned out fantastic and I sent it off to my partner, along with some goodies!
All in all, this was a fun swap to join and I might try another one someday! I'm wondering how many of the 100 zips I've used so far? =)
xoxox
Kristin
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