Big Mouth Pouch

If you've spent any amount of time looking at quilting / sewing blogs, you've probably heard the Open Wide Zipper Pouch by Anna. I had the pleasure of taking Anna's class at Sewing Summit and told myself that I'd make one one of these days. That day has come. I made a couple pouches to carry my knitting because they look stupid in plastic zippy bags. (No offence to plastic zippy bags. Love you.) 

I detest zippers more than I could ever explain. They are truly heinous and I hate them. Every time I sew with them I get so irate and I just want to chuck it at the wall. This time was no different. BUT, I powered through and I have two giant pouches to show for my anger and swearing! I did break a needle and thought I was going to lose an eye... SERENITY NOW!!!

And me being me, I simply can't follow a pattern as written. I made the pouch bigger than the biggest size offered (I cut the pieces 16" long by 13" high and boxed the corners at 4.75") to easily fit any knitting I'm working on.

I also used double zippers so that they open super extra wide. Hence the name Big Mouth Pouch hehehe :) My mum's going to think the name is very befitting of me... right, Mum?

See? They open up like buckets almost... so good for when I'm digging around in there. And they zip shut with the yarn sticking out of the middle of the bag.

I know, I'm so clever.

And I used fusible fleece on the outer layer so that they can actually stand up instead of flopping over, but without being too stiff or making the layers too thick with batting.

The pouches are made from Denyse Schmidt prints... I think the blue one is from the Richmond collection. The other might be Fancy Free? I've completely lost track of her collections at Joann's. The lining is just some leftover Moda Dottie left over from my Single Girl quilt backing. Might as well put it to use, plus grey goes with pretty much everything.

You've already seen my Array Cowl that's in the orange pouch, but the colourful knitting in the blue pouch is a cowl based on the Leftovers Cowl but instead of leftovers, I'm using a stripey sock yarn. It's just knit in the round as a tube, and will be joined with a kitchener stitch (I started it with a provisional cast on which I'll remove later on). It's something I can knit without looking at... like when I'm laying in bed watching telly. Yes, I knit while laid in bed. You know you want to.

There'll be quilty business happening soon... don't worry, I'm not leaving quilts for knitting anytime soon :)