Good Afternoon! I recently completed a zippered pouch. I used reticello embroidery designs from one of Giuliana Buonpadre's books. It is a cute little pouch about 21 cm wide and 16 cm long. I had never worked with a zipper before and it was nice that I was able to use the zipper foot on my sewing machine for the first time. lol I will admit working with the zipper was a little tricky only because you do not want to have your needle sew over the metal part of the zipper. I found a great simple tutorial by Melly Sews called the 15 minute zipper pouch. Mine took longer than fifteen minutes though because of the embroidery. I used a silver satin material behind the reticello which I attached using double sided fusible webbing. I could have also sewn the satin to the embroidery linen, but I like the fact that the satin can not move away from the linen. I just cut a square out a bit bigger than the reticello window before ironing the satin and linen together. Then I just followed the rest of Melly Sews' tutorial. If you're interested in making your own zipper pouch, you can find it here. There is also a video tutorial to accompany the written and picture tutorial.
For my pouch I used 20L Sotema Linen in Antique White, DMC Retos D'Alsace size 12, DMC coton a broder 25 in blue and silver for the embroidery, silver satin material as a backing for the embroidery, white cotton lawn with fusible interfacing for the lining, and a beige 7 inch zipper. Instead of machine top stitching to stabilize the fabric near the zipper as Melly does in her tutorial, I hand sewed a running stitch in a matching blue pearl cotton. It was a cute, quick and fun project, and now I have a one of a kind pouch to hold my threads and smaller tools. Here are some photos of my completed pouch:
Last time I posted, I mentioned our brood of birds. Well, I am happy to say that both the chickens and the ducks are thriving, and love their new home. They are now old enough to start settling outside. We have the ducks and the bigger chickens in their new outside homes, but the little bantams are still inside with us. They probably will be for another week or so. Since the birds are becoming more self sufficient, I have more time for needlework. I am also having surgery tomorrow. . . the last stage of my breast reconstruction. Thankfully it is out patient, so I will be back home tomorrow evening, but I will have to take it easy for a month or so, which means even more time for needlework! I decided to go ahead and make curtains. I've been toying with the idea for a few months now, and I decided it is time to do it. I'm working on a small kitchen valance right now to start. I figured I would start with a small window before I try our large picture window in our living room. I did order the linen from Italy for the living room curtains, and of course lots of thread! For the kitchen valance, I am using Sotema 20L linen in a lovely butter cream color with snow white coton a broder. I've drawn all the threads for the reticello border and will decide what other types of designs I will use after it is completed.
I'll post updates as I make more progress. Well, I must go . . .I'm trying to get that last bit of the more strenuous housework done before tomorrow. I hope you are all working on something lovely, and inspiring! Have a wonderful day and until next time. . .
~Happy Stitches!`
