I’ve done a little Back-To-School sewing for my nieces and nephew that I thought I’d share with you. I worked from two of my favorite patterns as well as my fabric and zipper stash. Here we go!
Pencil Pouches
Noodlehead’s Canvas Pencil Pouch is one of my favorite pencil pouch patterns. (See some previous Pencil Pouches here.) This project is free(!), it comes together easily, it’s cute and it can hold so many useful things.
I made one for my nephew in orange–a color love that we both share.
With these pouches, I added a little bit of embroidery on the inside–with his name. It’s just a sweet, textured and practical touch.
This second pencil pouch is for my niece. She requested rainbow and is obsessed with the color purple. In putting this one together, I learned that I have no rainbow fabric and basically no dark purple fabric either. (She’d be horrified!) She very recently started being more specific in asking for “dark purple” instead of just “purple.” I can appreciate the specificity and will have to keep an eye out next time I’m in a fabric store. Does this metallic Essex count as purple? We’ll see what she says.
To create a rainbow, I sewed together strips of red, yellow, green, blue and purple fabrics. They wrap from red at the top to purple at the bottom. I didn’t pick out the zipper until after cutting out the front. In hindsight, I might have switched the color order from purple at the top to red at the bottom to match the rainbow flow. Oh well, that can be a note for next time!
Small Vinyl Pouches
I made 3 small vinyl pouches for two nieces and one nephew. They’ll be using these to hold their ear buds. I used the Speedy Vinyl Pouches pattern by Aneela Hoey–another favorite that I’ve made several times before. (See some here.)
This time I let the kids pick out their own fabrics. My nephew went with the orange, one niece went with aqua and the other picked purple–of course.
As the pattern name suggests, they are a speedy sew.
It was a nice surprise to find these specialty vinyls from the Split Pouch SAL. (I forgot I had them! lol) They add such a flavorful touch to these sweet pouches. The recipients were very excited.
I added clasps to each of the pouches. Since they are so small, I figured it might be handy to be able to hook them onto a zipper or something else.
Of course I needed to add some cute labels. The Made By Auntie labels are from Sarah Hearts and a fitting choice.
The label in my niece’s pencil pouch is from a Kylie and the Machine Advent Calendar a few years back. It’s sweet and (most importantly) purple, so it was just right.
Project Details
// Pouch Patterns: Canvas Pencil Pouch by Noodlehead, Speedy Vinyl Pouch by Aneela Hoey
// Woven Labels: Sarah Hearts and Kylie and the Machine
// Specialty Vinyl: Can be found here* and here*
*Affiliate Link
Hi CF. thanks for posting. pouches came out great as usual and thanks for sharing information as to where supplies can be purchased. May I ask the following and so sorry if you have addressed this in the past. And I have tried to read and listen to interviews, so I don’t ask a repetitious question; however, zippers–like these projects seem to ask for sizes not available at regular brick and mortar stores–so what to do and where to go for said zippers? Next question: all that hardware where to go for said hardware? And will you possibly design fabric–it could be done on a limited basis like say Spoonflower. You can have different types of fabric ordered and they have wallpaper etc… As usual I can see the CF logo all over the place–with a lifestyle type thing. However, sewing questions answered would be appreciated. Thank you. 🍊😎
Hi, there! Thanks for your great questions. You can find all sizes of zippers at Zipit. Hardware can be a bit more spotty, and so I usually pick things up when I see things I like to use in shops. Noodlehead has a beautiful selection of supplies in her shop, Buckleguy is good, and you can usually find hardware at any of the big box craft stores too. I really appreciate your interest in my fabric! You’ll just have to wait and see. 🙂