Christmas sewing

I randomly happened to have a long, cream-colored zipper laying around so I thought I'd try my hand at a Noodlehead Open Wide zippered pouch.  I've seen a lot of these pouches floating around blogland and they seemed pretty straightforward.  I used a pretty maroon floral for the outer later and some cream for the lining.  Both gifted to me, as well as the zipper (I think) - yay for using what you've got!  I had just run out of featherweight fusible interfacing so I used a couple scraps of the craft weight that I had on hand.  It came out a little stiffer than I would have preferred, but again - yay for using what you've got!

 I made the large size since my zipper was pretty long, and it makes for a pretty large pouch - it's 14" wide and 11" tall!  (Maybe even slightly too big?  Can you have too big a pouch?  )  My plan is to follow Katy's gift-giving suggestion and fill it with a few items for the recipient.  So far I'm thinking some of my homemade chai tea mix, a lip gloss and another little thing or two.

The instructions for making the pouch were nice and clear.  I had a little bit of trouble finagling the zipper, but nothing too traumatic.  The whole thing was completed in one weekday evening, and I must say I had quite a sense of accomplishment!  I need to go and buy some more zippers (maybe in a smaller size this time!), because this is a great tutorial to have on hand for a quick and easy gift.

Whooping it up for one more Christmas present done!