A mandala pouch for my poppers

Since I shared the stack of vinyl pouches with you, pouches seem to have overtaken my life, which is a little dramatic I know. But I seriously have a bad case of Pouch Love!

This isn’t new to me, I’ve known I’ve had it for a long time - but what is new is that now I’m creating my own, and my answer really is ‘oh I need a pouch for that’ whatever the question. I’ve a few ready to share with you so will start to do that over the next few weeks, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This one though is both practical - it’s already in use - and had made use of two of the Adult Learning courses I did last year. This combines a print from the Indian Block Printing & Stitch course, along with the skills I picked up in the Bag Making course - most notably zips.

Though for all of the pouches I’ve made so far, I’ve still not switched to a zipper foot, so I think I probably should add that to my ‘to conquer’ list for this year, but back to this pouch.

It started off as a neon pink printed mandala on the cut up frill of an old valance sheet. Seriously.

Quite humble beginnings. At this point not even the edges had been finished on my overlocker - I guess I was keen to carry on printing during the class, and had underestimated just how many squares I’d need so printed and cut as I went!

As for many of the prints that I did in the class I had no real plans for what I’d do with the outputs, I was just enjoying the creative process and exploring the patterns and colours available. After the class finished I made more of a plan as to how I would embellish the prints, or at least chose a colour scheme.

The colour scheme chose me

This was was always going to have an element of teal, and I don’t know why. It’s not a colour I usually go for, though I have since bought clothes that are a similar colour, and I think it goes well with the pink. I was also keen for some of the printing to remain on show, and not to cover it all with embroidery, other than that I had no real plans when I started out.

After embellishing some of the printed area I knew I wanted more teal, and so it seemed natural to enclose it with a circle. And I thought I might turn it into an eye, but as I continued to embroider I decided against that. I didn’t do the outer circles - or at least two of them - freehand, I used a glass vase and then a plate to draw around to stop it all going skewif.

Nor did I use an embroidery hoop, and on reflection I probably should have for this one, as I ended up with more material than necessary in the centre. Thankfully though I came up with a plan for dealing with that - to use wadding to fill the hole, and so creating an almost raised central area. This in turn reminded me of the poppers I’d used on the first pouches I’d made, which the all important tools for were functionally, but not prettily stored in the metallic plastic bag it arrived in.

Now I really had a plan

With that I realised the answer was ‘I needed a pouch for that’ and what better than one with a big circle on the front. It was meant to be! But did I have any material that would match my teal scheme, probably - and as it turns out I did.

I’d bought the Liberty silk remnant during lockdown, along with some other prints which I’d used for some fancy masks, but I hadn’t used this one at all. Now was its time - I even found a complementary zip from the large stash I bought from eBay. The lining is the pale pink t-shirt remnant which I’d saved from a recently retired camisole top. Perfect.

I used the same approach as for the vinyl fronted pouches, but obviously without the vinyl part - and a whole lot bigger. Having made that stack of pouches really helped me out, as knowing how they were assembled meant I could made the adaptations I needed.

And it turned our really well.

Not only does it hold the tools for attaching the poppers - and the spare bits that came with it, it also holds the plastic container full of poppers.

So now when I want to add a popper I just need to go to my mandala pouch for my poppers - which may not always be easy to say, but it sure is easy to find!

Pockets, a pouch and reusing old curtains

It’s been a while since I updated you on my most recent Adult Learning class where I immersed myself in making bags - in the loosest sense for me, as my aim was always to make pouches rather than bags. I missed the final week of the course for our trip to the Gargano Peninsular, but left with really clear guidance on how to finish my piece.

Of course life happened, and what with one thing and another, and one of those being that in my mind it was way more complicated than I’d imagined, my unfinished pouch kept get putting to one side (spoiler: it wasn’t as hard as I thought, who knew?!)

But the unfinished pouch has been nagging me, and so I finally made time to finish it off.

And didn’t it turn out well?

I’m so pleased with how it turned out, but also at how ‘put together’ the materials and notions look. They all came from my stash, but what impressed me was that I’d pulled material from it randomly, and so was pleased to discover that these two pieces complemented each other, and I think the contrasting zip is a genius touch - even if I do say so myself!

I’m not sure what I’ll use it for yet, but I’m pretty sure it’ll come in handy before I know it - and I bet it won’t be long before I make more!

But there was more. I did make a bag, the rest of the class chose to make more of a handbag, but instead I opted for a bucket bag - and I used some old curtains for it. They came from my house before our previous house (if you follow) - a house I bought back in the early 90s which needed a lot of work, and more than a lick of paint - oh if I’d have been blogging then!

But I loved these curtains, and there was a lot of them. There was a large square bay window in this old Edwardian house, which meant a lot of curtains, lovingly made by mum (though I’m not sure she has the same memory of them!).

Clearly I’d kept the curtains for many years, I think I’d used them in our previous house as a stop-gap solution in our bedroom when we first moved in in 2002, but they’d been safely stored since then, making the move with us last summer. They probably could be classed as vintage, or close to anyway.

Though now part of them is a bag!

It looks like it’ll be a useful sized bag too, ably held up here by MOH. Taking a picture and holding this one just wasn’t going to happen. I also particularly like the leopard print webbing I bought for the handles, they’re a nod to my inner Bet Lynch but also to some of the large sofa cushions I had in the same room (and which I also still have and use!)

One of the things I was keen to get more practice and know-how for was zips, which I’d successfully avoided for many years. But no more, I’ve learnt they are way easier to insert with a zipper foot (yeah, obvious hey?!) and not as scary as you’d imagine.

At the course I practiced making some pockets for inside bags - or pouches - that’s why the surround material (and future lining) is large, they’re ready for when I need them. Whenever that might be.

This blue criss cross pocket (remember that from my sunglasses case?) was my first attempt, but without realising it I’d put in the zip facing the wrong way - doh!

The blue criss cross material was supposed to be the lining for the pocket, but after a bit of head scratching (in the intervening week, not at the class) I realised that if I added some lining to be the pocket back, I’d have a very pretty pocket indeed.

Pocket solved!

Not wanting to be beaten though I decided to have another go - giving myself homework!

Out came the Christmas pincushion fabric again, this time for a bigger starring role - and an inserted blue criss cross pocket.

I did need to make another tweak though as I was running short of the blue criss cross fabric, so added a strip of the Christmas fabric for an added touch of resourcefulness - and a two toned pocket.

New skills most definitely unlocked!

Three Indian Block Printed Leaves

I mentioned recently that I’d attended another Adult Learning course covering Indian Block Printing & Stitching, but hadn’t shared much of that here just yet. Not wanting to tease you I thought I should share some of that now that I’ve mentioned it, though there’s much more to come on this craft as this is the one I’m finding the most addictive so far. There’s so many possibilities, especially if I combine this with my newly found pouch-making skills!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

I’ll share more about the course and its format in a future post, here I want to focus on a completed piece - or almost completed piece…

How it started…

It started quite simply, using old bedding as my background material. This was from the box-pleated ‘frill’ of an old valance sheet which I cut off and edged using my overlocker. I ironed it too - there was a lot of it, though it was much easier to iron now that it wasn’t attached to the central section which goes under the mattress! We’d not used the valance sheet for many years as not only was it hard to iron, it was also tricky to manoeuvre under the mattress and well, life’s too short for all that.

I printed the designs onto the fabric using fabric and Indian blocks at the adult learning class - and as you can see used the same block to create the design of three leaves. I also experimented with using two colour fabric paints on the middle block, adding an almost fluorescent yellow to the shimmering green, which I used on the outer leaves.

I liked this as a design and the resulting print, though the leaves kept reminding me of onions for some reason, and I’ve no idea why. Having rediscovered the joys of chain stitch as part of this course I was keen to continue that, and decided to outline the leaves and then fill in the blanks, but keeping the central design different.

I wanted to keep the green and green/yellow outline, and I wanted the central design to be prominent. Looking through my threads I opted for browns through to blush pink for the outer leaves and for oranges through to yellow for the central motif - the colours just seemed right.

Stitching was surprisingly addictive, and quick. It seems I didn’t stop and take many photos of the in-between stages, but if you look at the middle leaf that’s edged with a lime green thread, rather than the darker green used on the outer two.

I also made it up as I went along, mixing and matching strands of my threads to help ease the colour progression, and I’m really pleased with how this turned out.

So then I decided to add some beads.

Just tiny little ones.

In some of the gaps.

Again allowing my creativity to lead.

It’s quite different to how it started isn’t it?

The embroidery is done, but this piece isn’t yet fully completed as I want to incorporate it into a pouch somehow - I’m just not sure how, just yet but I’m sure I’ll know in the not too distant future. For now I’m enjoying this unique piece which I’ve created without knowing where I’d end up.