I recently made a couple of Quilt As You Go Pouches by Svetlana Sotak from her book That Handmade Touch.
The pattern caught my eye for it’s cute shape and ability to make use of scraps. I’m such a scrap saver, and I love a project that makes good use of them. It feels like I’m cleaning up my sewing space and making something at the same time…because I am!
This is a great scrap project, because it can make use of any scraps big or small. Both pouches are made from some Jetty and Collection CF leftovers that I have in a basket from some other projects.
I generally tried to color each pouch a little differently, because I was making them as gifts for two friends.
For the quilt-as-you-go part, you make up two panels; one for the front and one for the back. I love seeing how the little details that you worked in to each panel get sewn up into the pouch.
This was my first time making one of Svetlana’s patterns, although I’ve admired them for years. It came together really easily, and I don’t think these will be my last!
Pattern: Quilt As You Go Zipper Pouch by Svetlana Sotak in That Handmade Touch
I can’t stop thinking about all of the sewn gifts I want to make this holiday season. Are you thinking about that too? If you are looking for ideas for quick favorites, here are some trays and pincushions in Jetty and Collection CF.
I always use Quilt Market as an excuse to make small, sewn things for the booth. Baskets, trays, and pincushions are always easy to set on the table to hold stuff. This time I made 3 trays using Noodlehead’s Tiny Treasures Tray tutorial, some pincushions and a couple of mini thread catchers.
The Treasures Tray is such a great project that comes together quickly, shows off some fabric and is super useful once they are done. I always find about a million uses for these around the house and in the sewing room.
Anna finishes her trays with leather handles, which is definitely a good-looking finish. I was surprised by how easy the leather handles and rivets were last time I made these, but sadly I didn’t have any leather scraps on hand this time. Rummaging around for an alternative, I decided to give webbing a shot. I like the look of the webbing, but I quickly discovered that it can be a little trickier than the leather. Mainly, webbing can be thicker, and so getting the rivets in place was a test in patience and persistence. I’m guessing that they make thicker rivets to solve that, but I made these work.
PSA: if you use webbing, it’s a good idea to hit the ends with Fray Check to prevent fraying.
Inside the basket are a couple of pincushions from my Crew pattern. They are G and H if you’re wondering.
On the black one I made sure to include some of the selvage so you’d get that fun white stripe on the side. The yellow one also makes use of the selvage design on the fabric.
It is a good thing that all of these projects are speedy, because it’s hard to make just one. I can’t remember exactly, but basically all of these came together in the same day.
Leading up to Quilt Market I couldn’t stop picking out pairs of fabric for possible Rye projects, which made the fabric pull for these super easy. They may not have made it into a Rye, but I found a use for them here.
The little thread catchers are the mini version from my free tutorial here. I LOVE traveling with this tiny size, and they come together in a flash. At the show they held my business cards nicely as well as the thread clippings from my demos.
I’ve been wanting to make some of these adorable baskets ever since Anna first made the batch in Euclid. It’s a beautiful shape with some serious fabric (and functional) possibilities.
I wouldn’t say that I was scared to make them, but I did underestimate how easy they are to make. Maybe it’s worrying about having the right notions and interfacing, but it always seemed like a little bit more of a chore than it actually ended up being. When I finally got around to doing it, I wondered what had taken me so long. (Which might be obvious in how I made 5 of them all in one go…)
There are many things I love about this project. First, it’s a very functional make. Who doesn’t have a need for some cute baskets? There are two sizes that can be handy for many different things. They can be useful for you or for someone else if you need to round up a gift.
Second, it’s such a perfect platform for showing off some fabric! Check out the Harriot Scallop in use in this one.
Third, and maybe why I was hesitant, is that this project does require you to incorporate rivets and handles of some type. Prior to these projects, I hadn’t done rivets, and I’ll admit I was a little scared. When I went to add them, I was extremely surprised by how easy they were to install. (I used Anna’s tutorial, which helped a lot. I also tested a rivet on a scrap first.)
As for the straps, I could have planned a little better in this department, but it ended up working out well. I had enough leather and leather-like options for all of them, except for the Scallop basket above. I ended up sewing together some fabric handles, which did the trick! It’s nice to know that that works too.
The fact that I made 5 of them in an afternoon should say something about how easy (and addictive) they are, which I really like.
Since making these, I’ve thrown all kinds of things into the baskets. They’re very handy!
There we have it. My Tiny Treasures Basket and Tray in Harriot.
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