The urge to create

I have been feeling the 'urge' lately to make a zipped case/purse.  I keep seeing them on blogs and in books and they always look so neat - especially the ones that are also lined. 
I grabbed my copy of Sew by Cath Kidston and altered the dimensions of the Knitting Needle Case pattern  -

Image source - 'Sew' by Cath Kidston

I particularly like this style of zipped case because it has covered zip ends, the sides of the case also rise at the top to cover the whole zip and it is lined.  Here was my first attempt at a smaller, scaled down version -

Not too bad at first glance, however, to quote a phrase Nancy used recently, it suffered from 'first pancake syndrome'. (Great phrase - I hadn't heard it before, but it fits this purpose exactly!) This purse was OK, but far from perfect.  Basically the ones I make following this one cannot possibly be any worse!

Let me show you what I mean -

Firstly, the end of the zip was supposed to be covered - but somehow the covered bit that I sewed on got lost in the final sewing up of the bag sides and turning out - it's in there somewhere!  And secondly, look at the terrible corners at the sides of the zip - I can't even get them turned out. 

So....I still had a spare half hour before nap time was officially over and I was determined to make something that was actually good, so I came up with another one -

Yay!  I hope you'll agree it's much better!  Can you see how both ends of the zip are covered?  And there's a lip along the side of the zip too.  I added some ribbon and cute beads to the zip as a little finishing touch.  (Must remember to use matching thread next time!)

Here's some other pics to give an indication of the size of this little zipper case -

A perfect size for so many uses.  I made this one using 2 squares from the Sunkissed layer cake (these were left over from my quilt as I didn't really fancy this shade of green on my quilt top as I thought it was a bit 'bleugh' - although now its growing on me!)

I'm really pleased that I eventually mastered the art of making a little zip pouch, and this one is finished off so neatly by the binding inside which covers the raw edges of the hem along the sides and bottom -

I will definitely make some more of these to take along to the craft fair that I'm displaying at in August. 

I can also finally unveil the trio of cushions that I have been making.  Here they are, all looking great together -

I decided to keep the smaller cushion much simpler than the larger ones for fear of 'over crowding' the hearts, so I just blanket stitched one larger gingham heart to the white centre, framed it with pink and grey and then quilted on the white and pink sections. 

I used an envelope style opening on the back of each cushion and prettied them up in different ways -

3 cushions = 1 happy customer :)


Linkin' up to -