:: Merry Christmas! ::

I have now ticked off the last of the goodies on my pre-Christmas sewing to-do list - with four whole days to spare! 

First up for today was the project-size from Jeni's In Color Order Lined Drawstring Bag pattern.  I made one each for my girls, to store balls of wool and other goodies for their most recent crafty-obsession - kumihimo braiding. 

They each chose their own fabric combos.  I really love Jeni's pattern, it's really easy to follow and comes together very quickly.  I will be making more bags in the new year - to add to the five I've now made in the last few days :-) .

And then it was onto two zip pouches, using Anna's open-wide zip pouch tutorial on her Noodlehead blog. 

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I had seen zip pouches made from 2wenty Thr3e by Cosmo Cricket, on Badskirt Amy's blog and loved the look of the line.  Amy mentioned in her blog, that QuiltJane had some layer cakes in stock, so I clicked across and bought one. 

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I figured I may as well make two pouches while I was at it - so I made the grey camera-print version as part of my Secret Santa pressie for one of my brothers ... 

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... and this gorgeous one is for me to keep!  I LOVE this print.

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Anna's tutorial was great, and I'm really amazed at how roomy the pouches are, and how big the zippered opening is.  It makes a huge difference to the usable size of the pouch - you can easily see what's inside, which is important when you're scrabbling around for pointy things like embroidery-snips.  I really want to sew some pouches in the two bigger sizes that Anna has in her tutorial.

But that will have to wait for a few days, as I am stepping away from the sewing-machine and the computer, to focus on Christmassy things and to spend some time with my family.  

So - this will be our last blog post before Christmas, and maybe the New Year.  We'll see how we go. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year, and a peaceful and safe holiday period.  We'll see you back here in January.

take care  xoxo cat