MAKE A TRIPLE ZIP POUCH or IT'S THE CAT'S FAULT

Picture this:  It’s 5:30 Sunday morning.  It’s been snowing for days.  I'm in bed asleep, snuggled down under my warm comforter, secure in the knowledge that I can sleep in because I know I am not going any place today.

And picture this:  A high chest of drawers next to the bed and a 17 lb. cat who loves to sleep on top of said chest. Remember, it's 5:30 a.m.  Said cat takes a flying leap off the chest, and crashes onto the bed startling me awake.  Then she uses my body as a balancing beam as she travels across the bed, and hops onto the floor, landing with a thunderous thump.  Now that she’s sure I’m wide awake, she stands in the doorway and lets out earsplitting meow’s. 

I ignore her, grit my teeth, and snuggle down under the covers a little deeper as I wonder about my sanity at owning a cat.  Then I give up.  I am awake.  I might as well get up and sew.
 
And this is what I did.  You may have seen the Triple Zip Pouch on other blogs, i.e. Peas In A Pod or Alamosa Quilter.   I wanted to make one too, so I rolled out of bed, fed the cat, made coffee, and went into my sewing room to tackle that project.  Above is the end result. 

This shows you the lining I used, which is really just the same fabric that I used on the bottom of the pouch.  I had visions of making this cute little pouch for all my friends and maybe even get an early start on Christmas gifts. Not! Let me tell you what happened, but first I must preface this with the fact that any troubles were certainly no fault of the pattern maker.  The problems are all my own. (Actually, it was the cat's fault!)

First of all I had it in my mind that it would be a much larger pouch than it turned out to be.  I know the size of fabrics was posted, but my mind could not grasp that.  In fact there were several things my mind didn’t seem able to grasp. (Due to said cat.)

I thought I’d have problems with the zippers, but that was not the case.  I followed the instructions and got that part put together without problems.  It was when I came to the finishing stage that I had trouble.  March Girl Designs even put together an alternate way to finish the bag, but I still could not get the pouch to look right. Stephanie and Lynn didn’t have any problems.  After re-reading the instructions several times and doing a lot of un-sewing, I finally got it, but the bag is still not perfect.  Note the rounded corner at the right top.  And I don’t know what I did wrong with the lining, but it sure isn’t as smooth as it should be.  I now know why I just do flat. (I still think it's the cat's fault.)

It is a cute bag and I would recommend anyone try it.  Most people have better skills than I do and probably don't have a cat waking them at the crack of dawn.  So check out A Quilter's Table for the tutorial.

Check out Retired To Quilt to see her bag and what she did with the zippers.  A really cute idea. Then check out Solar Threads for more interesting ideas on what to do with the zippers.

Until next time,
♥
Stay Calm! Stay Kind! Stay Positive! (oh, boy, did I ever need to remember this)
Caroll