Sewing With Kids - Zipper Pouches

Front - notice how we used the extra piece of zipper for the tab on the pink polka dotted pouch?  Love. 

 This summer was altogether too fast and and the same time too slow.  We started out with tennis lessons at the park then our epic road trip to California for my brother's wedding, and then I madly prepared for the iQuilt class.  Once I was done filming there were only a few days to go shopping for school supplies before school started.  But there was still one more thing I wanted to fit in.  I wanted to sew something with the kids.

I have a love/hate relationship with sewing with my kids.  Sewing is something I do that is "my" time.  It is relaxing, fun and productive.  All of those positives disappear when I sew with my kids.  It is not relaxing and I really have to work on being patient.  But I guess it is productive.  We do make stuff that is cute and usable and I really do think it is important to teach them to sew, so I have a "Sewing With Kids" goal that I try to stick to.  One project per kid per year.  Yeah.  Not a big goal.  Baby steps.  But I wanted to work it in before school started.

The backs.

They added earbuds to the school supply list this year so I decided that making a small zipper pouch for the earbuds would be a good plan - plus they are so darn cute - and fast.  Some kids went for a bigger pencil/crayon sized pouch.  Even Becca (age 2) took a turn "sewing" (sitting on my lap as I sewed the pouch out of fabric she picked out).

The pouches were a fun, quick project that is very usable and super cute and the girls had a lot of fun making them.  Now I just need to get the 15 year old to sit down and make something before January 1st.....

Zipper Pouches

I taught a class this month at our church's Christmas Craft Night.  I am a firm believer that everyone should sew ;) so I suggested making zipper pouches as one of the activities.   I based them off of The Circle Zip Ear Bud Pouch - except that we used a 5x7 piece of fabric, no batting and zig zagged around the inside seam instead of  top stitching around the edges.

Here are two zipper pouches made by a mother and daughter team.  Love them!  They even went back and made a second set of pouches.   I love the bright contrasting zippers and pop of color on the inside.  Perfect for crayons, cars, IPods and all your special stuff.  The only bad part was that I missed out on taking the Learn How to Knit class. :(   But that is probably a good thing.   Goodness knows I don't need another hobby.  ;)

I have been trucking away at making Christmas pillows, quilt and tree skirt but things slowed down when I ran into trouble with my machine.  $%^#?^!  I was very frustrated with it, but we seem to be doing better.  Note to the wise:  when oiling your machine be careful not to get oil on the belts.  Not good.

Hope you are having a great weekend and can find some time to sew!  :)

Foundation Paper Piecing

A few weeks ago the people at Craftsy asked me if I would like to take and review one of their quilting classes.  Hello, yes!  I took Carol Doak's Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing class and loved it!  Since I have paper pieced before, I wasn't sure how much I would learn, but Carol is full of great tips from start to finish!

At one point in the first lesson Carol talks about using paper specifically made for foundation paper piecing.  I have always used printer paper and when I saw her tug on her block to remove the paper I literally gasped out loud.  It was like seeing a toddler start to trip on a white rug with a glass of grape juice.  I was sure her block would be mangled!  But the paper just tore and came right off.  Very impressive.  I went and bought paper - and it tears off like a dream!

There are great materials included with the class to make all of the projects that she demonstrates plus the ebook 50 Little Paper Pieced Blocks.

I used one of the patterns in the 50 Little Paper Pieced Blocks ebook to make the apple on this little pouch.  Not all of the 50 three inch blocks are my style, but there are some fun star blocks in there that would be fun to use in small projects.

Some of the most helpful tips were how to determine how large to cut your fabric when you have a pattern that doesn't specify fabric size and tips on how to make sure your corners match exactly each time.  Plus there is a place to post pictures of your projects and to ask questions.  Carol is very active on the site and has answered every question.  Impressive.

Interested in taking the class?  You can use this link to get the class half off!  The link and half off deal don't expire.  Thanks Craftsy!

Plus, have you seen Craftsy's free classes?  Bag Making Basics, Sewing Machine 911, Creative Quilt Backs and the Craftsy Block of the Month?  What great resources!