Pretty Little Pouch Swap

I love tiny wee pouches so much, that I broke my "no swaps for a year" rule again *sheepish grin*. I signed up for Kelly and Michelle's Pretty Little Pouch Swap because it's one of my favorites!

I just finished my pouch for my partner, and I'm proud of myself because I actually finished two whole days ahead of the mailing deadline. That's gotta be some kinda record for me :)

I love playing with texture and odd techniques, and I've been wanting to try my hand at finding a way to "weave" fabric without having a bunch of raw seams. My solution was buttonholes! I made a total of 42 buttonholes on each side of the pouch so that I could weave fabric strips in and out....I kinda screwed the pooch on the placement of the buttonholes on the alternating rows, because I off-set them instead of directly lining them up with the previous row. Oh well. Things still turned out okay (I think) - hopefully my partner likes it because I saw a lot of linen and rainbow colors in her mosaic and photostream :)

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Match Made in Heaven

One of Ray's cousins recently moved to the area from Colorado, and she is a crafter like me! She makes buttons and jewelry, so a few weeks ago I commissioned some buttons from her and gave her a stack of fabric scraps to draw inspiration from. She's a gal after my own heart, and was immediately drawn to the Joel Dewberry prints I gave her. She made the two gorgeous buttons you see on the bags above.

I popped by to pick them up the other day, and as soon as I saw them, I was immediately inspired to design a new bag for them! I've dubbed the pattern the "Grab 'n' Go Clutch", because I live like a Spartan on the weekends - no makeup, curly hair, no big purses. I love having small bags around that I can throw the essentials in when I'm running out the door on errands (wallet, keys, cell phone), and this bag is perfect for that! It's got a zipper closure at the top, a detachable wristlet strap, and measures exactly 12" x 5". And it seems I've been seeing adorable pleats everywhere lately, so I was inspired to inset a little pleated detail on the front.

My friends and family have been after me to post handmade gifts in my Etsy shop for about two years now, so I've finally gotten some things together. These two pouches are already in my shop, and I'll be posting more over the next few days.

Would you all be interested in me adding the pattern to my shop? Lemme know if you are :)

And here's the pink one...it's my fav!

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