two-color zip pouches

My niece Mariah turned 12 last week, so I whipped up a little zip pouch for her. She likes cats and orange--I am the one who likes polka dots and aqua--but I think they all work great together! I love making zipper pouches for gifts because they are fast, easy, fun, and practical, too. They only require a few fabrics, and even the pickiest person can use a zip pouch for something!

For the lining, I used this fun(ky) vintage looking cat print. It's quirky and it makes me smile!

I prefer to make zipper tabs for my pouches because I seem to get much tidier results, plus it's another chance to sneak one more fabric into the mix. I had so much fun making this pouch and I am pretty sure that she liked it, too. Win/win!

My 12-year-old son saw me sewing the pouch above and he requested one for a Lego mosaic kit he made, so he and I sat down and chose the fabrics together. His go-to color scheme is blue and green, so that narrows things down fairly quickly. I love how these fabrics work together!

He didn't have his zip pouch in hand for very long at all before it was in use. I can't tell you how much I love the fact that my kids love (and even request) that I make things for them. It's pretty sweet!

I asked my 14 year old if he wanted a zip pouch, to which he replied "wouldn't say no!", so he got one in his signature colors of orange and gray. It's fun to have things color coded for each member of the family.

While I was at it, I made a third one as a gift for my sister. I still want to make a few more for me and my daughter, but I stopped at 3 for the day. Things snowball way too quickly!

I love the contrasting linings and the polka dot tabs! I always try to keep the linings light in color so things inside are easier to see/find.

For each one of these, I used a bit of selvage for a label. Yay!

All three of these are made with my soon-to-be-released fabric line, good neighbors. (I think it's just over three weeks until release date! I can't wait!) These were actually made from the strike-offs of the fabric I got earlier this year.

The pattern for the zip pouch is included in the collaborative book Gifty 2015, which is published by Connecting Threads. The pattern is also available for an individual download here, if you care to make some of your own.

 

It is completely possible that this blog post took me longer to write than the pouches took to sew! And that's no joke! :)
 

Happy Monday to you!