pencil pouches {and a sale on my patterns}

I love making pouches. They are my most favorite thing to sew as they usually don't take too long to make, use up little fabric, and pretty much anyone can use a pouch or two so they make great gifts as well.

So yesterday, as I was finally getting over a nasty cold (while it's 90 degrees outside), I decided to make myself a new pencil pouch. The pattern for this pouch can be found in Anna's gorgeous book Handmade Style.

I chose this beautifully soft corduroy fabric for the exterior of the pouch, a magenta zipper which was the only zipper I had in the correct size, and pretty flowers for the lining. I really like using muted colors for the outside of my projects and use brighter fabrics for the lining to add that unexpected little pop of color and surprise :).

Oh, and I love, love, love adding leather accents to my pouches.

I pretty much followed the instructions for this pouch the way they were written in the book. I did, however, use fusible fleece instead of interfacing as I wanted my pouch to be squishy. I also attached binding first to the front by machine and finished it by hand on the back of the pouch to ensure nicely finished and even binding on both sides.

All in all, this was a super fun, super quick pouch to make (it only took 45 minutes from start to finish) and I would very highly recommend you get yourself a Handmade Style book, if you don't already have it. You won't be disappointed, I promise.

And, since we're talking pouches, I also wanted to show you a pencil pouch I made for my middle daughter a while back but totally forgot to blog about it :(. 

I used Karen Lewis' stunning hand printed fabric for the exterior and combined it with yarn dyed Essex linen which even my super picky girl likes. Yes, she's definitely a tricky one when it comes to finding fabric and pattern she approves of.

I followed my own Lola pattern for this pouch, only I made it slightly taller as I know my daughter usually puts way too many supplies in her pouches. And, we both like how widely this pouch can be opened, which helps tremendously when she needs to find just the right shade of marker or pencil. 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Now, in case you'd like to make a Lola pouch (or any other of my pouches and bags) of your own, I have a 25% discount coupon code for you. Simply type LABOR25 during checkout in my Etsy shop and a 25% discount will be applied to ALL my pdf patterns (discount code is valid through Monday, Sep. 7th).

Wishing you all a super lovely Labor Day weekend. Svetlana