Zakka Along Week 11 :: Orchard Path Tweed Pouch

OK, so I should have been quilting my solstice stars tonight, and I did for a bit. But I really didn't want to risk missing out on making this week's Zakka project, so I switched over and got to work on the little Zakka pouch. Actually, this pouch is pretty big - it finishes at 6 1/2" x 9 1/2". The design is by Amanda of msmcporkshopquilts, and highlighted this week by Elizabeth of Don't Call Me Betsy, who right away makes the important point of enlarging only the main pouch pattern, not the hexagons or corner pieces. Good to know, though I did make one copy of the pouch pattern straight out of the book, because as The Patchsmith shared, the un-enlarged pattern makes a fine little coin purse. A project for another day.

As far as patterns go, I wasn't really interested in copying the hexies one by one, so a quick web search led me to Snippets and Blabbery, where I found some perfect little hexagon sheets. The one I needed was for 3/4" hexies - little bitty guys. It had been over a year since I had made any hexies (a darling little Christmas stocking for my grandgirl), and though I love the look, they aren't my favorite to make. But these proved to be small enough and quick enough, it wasn't too painful. I had never zig-zagged them onto anything before, but it worked like a charm, and I did as the instructions suggested, using clear thread on top and gray in the bobbin.

Probably the trickiest part for me were the linen corners. Totally could have been sewist error, but they didn't seem to 'fit' just right, though once top-stitched with some creamy wool Aurifil, they looked ok.

For the lining, I chose one of my favorite DS Flea Market Fancy prints, the Leaf Dot in Gray. After rummaging through my stash two different times, this finally leapt out at me as the perfect choice - a good scale to balance the tweed, and the brown and gray just suited my taste just fine.

Now for the bad news. I had ordered some awesome little zipper pulls from ButtonsNDesigns on Etsy, but wasn't clever enough to realize I also needed to order some links to attach one to the zip.

Luckily (the good news), I happened to have some ivory twill tape on hand from pinked fabrics, and that worked just fine and coordinated well with the linen detailing.

So once again, a fun Zakka finish.

Linking up with LRStitched, Plum and June, and show off Friday.