i've gotten really into making pouches lately >:)

Guess who finally has properly conquered her fear of her sewing machine!!! Me!!!!

As I ramp up towards starting to sell stuff again, I've been thinking about the OOAK (one-of-a-kind) things I wanna make and sell, and when I tried my hand at making another crochet pouch to iron out my process for the eventual tutorial video I'm gonna make, I was like "Hm....if I learn how to make plain fabric zipper pouches, I can probably bring that knowledge over to my crochet pouches....HMMMMM"

So this is less of a tutorial post, and more of a "I tried out a bunch of stuff and learned a lot along the way" kinda post, and also just to bring y'all into what I'm thinking about for my future shop ideas. :D

GRANNY SQUARE POUCHES

So let's start with the mini crochet pouches!! Cause they're just so cute and so ding-dang handy.

The little tri-color rainbow one is the one I started with, when I was trying to remember how I put in the zippers and stuff, and it's...quite messy lol. The shape is super uneven and just feels really sloppy.I then made a larger one, and used some tips from this tutorial to help the zipper sit a little flatter. And I used Liquid Stitch for the entire thing cause I was still afraid of my sewing machine at this point. And it turned out pretty dang cute!!

Then I gathered my courage, and learned how to make a fabric zipper pouch (using this incredible tutorial which made the whole process feel so approachable) and I learned about a magical thing called ~zipper tabs~ which are those little bits of fabric that cover either end of the zipper and make it look SOOOO neat and tidy. I figured that this would also work for my crochet pouches and lo!! I was correct!!

I used Liquid Stitch to attach the inner zipper lining to the crochet squares which is 10000000 times easier and faster than hand-stitching the lining to the granny squares. I feel pretty confident in my process for these now, so I feel ready to film a tutorial for them. I was going to do the tutorial for both sizes, with the larger one being the main focus, and then sort of an addendum section for the little pouches, cause they're just so cute and handy. :3

FABRIC POUCHES

So, in my quest to figure out my crochet pouch process, I made a few fabric zipper pouches! I learned about zipper tabs, how to attach interfacing, little tips and tricks to make the sides of the bag remain straight, I even looked into how to do patchwork!! I did also find a tutorial for making a quilted zipper pouch, but I've yet to try that (this website is actually full of really great simple sewing tutorials, there's one on how to cut even triangles and squares for patchwork, it's really nice). Seems fairly straight forward tho!

I kept the other side of this pouch plain, to make my life a lil easier, and honestly, I think it makes the patchwork side a lil more impactful~

I use this lil pouch for all my crochet notions now, it's a perfect fit <3

I also made this beautiful strawberry pouch with a boxed bottom as an early Mother's Day gift for my mom and I think it might be my magnum opus thus far :')

In looking at these photos, I have learned that it's important for the fabric to be completely wrinkle free before you add the interfacing, cause once the interfacing is attached, you can't really iron out any fabric wrinkles that might remain. Or at least I haven't figured out how to lol.

And that's my most recent fabric arts venture!! I definitely plan on making a small collection of these to sell. I mentioned this in my podcast yesterday, but I want to make some originals to sell once I open up my shop again, and I was thinking of keeping the originals (stuff like these pouches, maybe some clay goodies, paintings, crochet things) exclusive to the Patreon secret shop, since I'd be giving y'all early access regardless. >:) I'm still mulling it over~

Happy Wednesday!! and happy May~~ <333

xoxo Chey