Christmas gifts - Accordion Pouches

WHOA! Where does the time go?! It's been a month since I last posted - aargh! There are a couple of reasons for the delay, though. The first is my wrist. Although it's healing well, two of the things that bother it the most are writing and typing for any length of time. I guess it's just from having it tensed in one position that long. It gets stiff and sore pretty fast.

The other reason is that although I did some sewing, I couldn't show it to you because the items were for Christmas gifts, and I of course didn't want to spoil anyone's surprise. All gifts have been received now, so here they are. 

I was having sewing withdrawals, but because cutting was challenging for my wrist, I needed projects that were simple and not a lot of work. These pouches fit the bill! There were only two small pattern pieces.

Aren't they just too cute? I started out with just this one below, made from a Glimmer Solids fat quarter that I'd gotten from Cloud9 Fabrics awhile back and lining scraps from another project. These pouches are great scrapbusters because they require so little fabric. I don't know how well you can see the sparkles in this next photo, but they're so pretty, and I thought Courtney would like this pouch.

Here's what the inside looks like. I even remembered to add my label... after I'd sewn it together (insert rolling eye emoji here - ha), but with a little wrangling I was still able to sew it on with the machine. (Otherwise, glue works very well, I've found.)

That one went so well and I liked it so much (and needed to do more sewing to keep the withdrawals at bay) that I decided to make a few more for gifts. These first two are made from various fabrics from Jess's Typography line (now out of print) of quilting cotton.

I also had some scraps of oilskin and Jess's newest Business Class rayon that I'd made this Jack Tar bag from, and I thought the oilskin would make a cool masculine pouch. The rayon has always reminded me of camouflage, so I thought it'd work for the inside (and besides, it can be a little reminder of his wife for the recipient ;) ). I almost sorta like this one the best!

In case you'd like to make some of the pouches yourself, you can find the free video tutorial here. It's by Shabby Fabrics. There's also a video tutorial by Darvanalee Designs Studio that has some helpful hacks that I used successfully, and it can be found here. The pattern pieces are here (and note that the first page, which looks like just a rectangle with instructions, is actually a pattern piece). Thanks to eSheep Designs for putting me on to another fun must-make tutorial.

As a followup to my last post, here's a photo of our new linoleum. I LOVE it!! It's so much easier on the eyes than the old stuff, and it's also much quieter. (This photo doesn't begin to do it justice.)

It's noticeably more cushioned than our old floor. Although it has a 50-year warranty, it's recommended that we no longer use the casters on our dining chairs. So we got some of these bell-shaped slider thingies to protect the floor.

To be honest, I hate them. They slide, but they're much harder to move than any kind of roller. Grandpa doesn't mind them, but maybe that's because his legs are longer and stronger than mine. I also tried felt on the bottoms of them, but that didn't help, either. I continue to put up with them, but if anybody has any better suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Also, since our casters matched the chairs, these black things reminded me of photos or videos you see of dogs wearing boots for the first time and walking so funny. ;-Þ

(Sorry, I don't know who to credit for the copyright.)

Right??? ;-D

Well, my wrist is complaining again, so I'm outta here. I do have a couple new sewing projects in the works, so hopefully I'll be back again before too long.