Zip-Up Cardholder Wallet

I made this Zip-Up Cardholder Wallet for a birthday gift for a friend and sent it to her. It is a free pdf pattern by All Sew Petite. There is also a hack that I saw where you could add a strip with a snap to fit over the cards for extra security and a flap that snaps over the back slip pocket. I decided to just make the original pattern, but I added a plastic snap on the back without a flap. I think that worked better than a flap and was a lot easier too.

2 card pockets on one side.

For credit cards or business cards.

The other side has a slip pocket and I added a heart shaped plastic snap. There is a hack to add a flap with a snap, but I thought this worked just as well and was easier and faster to do.

The slip pocket opened.

Zipper pocket opened. You could use this pocket for coins and cash or whatever.

Karen received this and she emailed me a very nice compliment about it too. Glad you like it Karen.

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Ava Hip Bag (Pattern by All Sew Petite)

Monika of All Sew Petite Patterns has designed this fabulous hip bag, called Ava Hip Bag. It is a great looking bag as well as being really functional. It can be worn as a sling across your front or back, a cross body or a waist/hip bag too. 

Ava has lots of space too! 4 zippered pockets: a zippered main closure, a front zippered pocket, a back zippered pocket, an inside zipper pocket which is great for cash or coins or both, plus credit card slots/pockets too inside, so no need to carry a wallet!

Ava measures 14" wide x 7 1/2" high x 4 3/4" deep. 

Ava pdf pattern is on sale at 30% off, no code is needed, so grab yours now while it is on sale. Sale is for 72 hours only! Monika is in the UK, so make sure you get it before the 72 hours are up. Monika also has a video tutorial so you can sew along with her making the Ava Hip Bag. 

I love this brown batik fabric with the Southwest turquoise turtles and thought it was perfect for this bag. The top zipper opens to the main bag compartment and the bottom zipper is a pocket for hold your easy access stuff like keys.

I chose to add one zipper pull for each zipper, rather than 2 zipper pulls. I find it is just as easy to pull one pull around than to have to zip/unzip one pull in each direction, which seems more fiddly to do for me. Some testers did add 2 zipper pulls and some did not. The double pulls do look nice when centered, but knowing me, I will never get them centered when using the bag 😜😂. To each her own.

Here I slung it over the chair to mimic how it would look wearing as a sling on your front or back. 

The back has a zipper pocket with an overlay. I unzipped it here. 

The back side with the zipper pocket with an overlay. 

Front pocket unzipped.

Inside the main compartment are card pocket slots and a zippered pocket to hold your cash and coins, since you don't need to carry a wallet (unless you want to carry a wallet) as this is like a built in wallet. Plus, there is still room to hold other items as well, like a glasses case and a fold up shopping bag or whatever you like to carry.

The top main zipper unzipped.

I have been using this bag since I tested it. I prefer to wear mine as a sling. If you want to make as a hip bag that converts to a sling bag, you really need to make 2 adjustable straps with swivel hook attachments so you can adjust one shorter strap as a waist bag and a longer adjustable to wear as a sling bag.

Oh, and be sure to check out the Tester's Bags too so you can see how different they look in different fabric, colors and materials used. Scroll down to see tester's bags. Mine is the first bag shown.

I love this bag to wear as a sling bag so much that I have been using it a lot since I made it. I am keeping this one for me!!!

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Maya Toiletry Pouch: a New Bag from All Sew Petite

Hello bag lovers. I was happy to be able to test the Maya Toiletry Pouch for All Sew Petite, which is such a fun bag to make and use!

I chose a pretty cotton print for the main body and a cotton purple accent for the bottom, and a vinyl for the side part that snaps and is used as a grab handle. You can make in cotton or vinyl or cork too or combine materials for a great look.

The finished measurements are: 15 cm H / 23 cm W / 13 cm D (5 7/8”H / 9”W / 5 1/8”D)

I love this print! The colors and the design is so pretty!

Closes with a zipper closure.

The side pieces with the snap makes a great grab handle. Unsnap it to open the bag wider.

I love to quilt the bottom of bags for more stability.

Inside I used a waterproof canvas material. I used cotton fabric for the inside of the zipper pocket.

I love purple and these blue fabrics together.

Grab your pdf pattern now while it is on sale. Monika also has made a video showing how to make this bag too, so if you need more visual instructions, watch the video.

The pattern is 35% off for the first week! Don't miss this opportunity to get your hands on the Maya Toiletry Pouch sewing pattern. No code is needed.  

The sale ends at midnight on the 12th of March (GMT).

Tester bags on Monika's blog here. Be sure and check them out!

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Agnes Jewellry Pouches

The Agnes Jewellry Pouches pattern + video has finally arrived and is on sale for 40% off for 2 days only! Sale ends April 27, 2023 at 9am (GMT) so hurry and get your pattern! No code is needed! I tested these pouches for Monika of All Sew Petite. (Monika is from the UK so that is why jewelry is spelled with 2 "L's" in case you might be wondering, lol).

I LOVE these jewelry pouches! You can make one or both sizes. They are great to keep all of your jewelry in or take the smaller one with you for traveling. There are extra clear view zipper pockets that you can snap into either size and remove them whenever you want to. You can contain all of your jewelry in one place now! And these pouches would also be great for small sewing, knitting, or other craft tools that you want to be handy to keep in one place too! So many ways to use these pouches, so they don't have to be just for jewelry (you can eliminate making the ring or earring snap on holders if you intend to use these pouches for something else).

I chose a pretty batik for the outside of my pouches and other batik fabric for the inside lining fabrics.

Large size pouch on the left closes with a turn lock closure, whereas the smaller pouch on the right just folds in half. But no worries, as all your jewelry is secured in place and cannot fall out!

Inside are so many storage places. There is a snap off ring holder that is stuffed, an earring snap off holder, individual snaps for holding necklaces, snap off clear window zipper pockets, fabric pockets with flaps, stationary zipper pockets too!

I filled these pouches full of my jewelry! I didn't put much inside the fabric pockets, so I still have more room! Apparently, I have way too many earrings and had to place more earrings inside the clear zip pocket too!

Large size filled with jewelry.

Small size filled with jewelry.

Large size empty.

Small size with an extra snap on clear window double sided zipper pockets to add wherever you want to.

Hurry and save 40% off right now! Sale ends 9am April 27 (GMT), so grab your pdf now and you don't need a code.

@allsewpetite #ASPAgnesPouch #AllsewpetitePatterns

And check out the tester's pouches here.

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Ice Cube Zipper Pouch

Hello sweet people trying to stay cool during this hot summer. I have a cool project to share with you. I made a bag to store ice cubes in the freezer. Now you might wonder why I would need such a bag? Well let me tell you. For years we had no freezer at all. We have a small refrigerator, but it has no freezer. We didn't think we would really need a freezer as it would only encourage us to buy frozen desserts! LOL!! 

A couple of years ago we thought it might be nice to have a freezer and we got a chest style freezer on sale that was the right size to place in our kitchen. So we got it. It has one long basket inside, but no shelves. Making ice was a challenge as where could we put the ice cubes trays? The basket was full of food and I would place ice cube trays on top of frozen bags until they were frozen enough to empty into a Ziplock plastic bag where I stored them. 

I happened upon a couple of silicone ice cube trays at a thrift shop that had a metal rim around them and got them. They were shorter trays, but fit perfectly straddling the basket in the freezer. Plus I love how easily the ice pops out of the tray by pushing on the back side. The ice is more of a tube shape than a cube, but they are great for adding to water bottles. 

The plastic Ziplock bag was getting heavy with use and it was hard to get the ice into the plastic bag when it is empty as the bags are flat without any bottom to stand up. I thought I should make a zipper pouch that has a bottom and roomy inside and that can stand on it's own to make it easier to add the ice into the bag. So I searched online to find food safe fabric to use for the lining of the bag. I bought a yard of it (choose the one on sale) in a pretty pale yellow fabric. I had not idea what type of food safe fabric to buy as there were many to choose from. The one I got was thin and rather slippery to work with. It was 2mil and I wasn't sure what mil would be best? 

While I was waiting for the lining fabric to arrive, I choose the fabric and the pattern I decided on using. Looking through my batik fabric, I found I had this snowflake print, which I thought was a perfect choice. I paired it with a yellow batik print. I quilted the blue fabric to fleece in a triangle mountain peak sort of design I drew. Hard to see it in the photos though. I knew I wanted to appliqué the words "Ice Cubes" on the front of the bag, so I did that first. I chose to use the Scooter Pouch by AllSewPetite, but I eliminated all the straps and hardware and the zipper pocket. I also added a tab at each end of the zipper to grab on to when zipping and unzipping the bag as well as a grab handle at one end. It turned out great! And it's so useful too. If we had shelves in our freezer, then we could have just used a plastic bin to store ice cubes in, but this is at great solution for us and it's so much prettier, don't you think? You could also use the Isabella Pouch as well, since it is the same basic shape as the Scooter Pouch. Since I had tested the Scooter Pouch for Monika, I used it. Both bag patterns have a free video tutorial. Check out Monika's YouTube channel here for all her patterns (she does a video for her all her patterns, whether they are free or you pay for the pdf with templates). Her instructions are always great! So whether you want to follow the pdf or the video or both, you can do it either way.

The snowflake batik was a great choice for this pouch, along with the "Ice Cubes" appliqué.

Top view.

The pretty yellow food safe lining fabric in yellow.

The other side. I quilted the blue fabric in a triangle mountain peak sort of design I drew. Hard to see the quilting in these photos.

Full of ice cubes. Or they look more like ice tubes, lol!!! That makes me cooler just looking at that bag full of ice!

Stay cool my friends!
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Gifts for a Beekeeper: Wall Quilt & Composition Notebook with Cover

Hello my Bizzy Bees. A good friend of mine bought a beehive so she could raise bees in her backyard. My husband assembled the beehive for her and she will pick up the bees in April to put into her new hive.

So of course that got me thinking about making her something for her new beekeeping adventure. I wanted to make a cover for a composition notebook so she could take notes and jot down important bee things to refer to later. So I went with Sotak Handmade tutorial for a composition book cover. I love her patterns and have made several of her bags and other things. Thanks Svetlana for the tutorial!

Well, I forgot about turning the fabric under for the book cover to place the book into later and so I placed my Beekeeper gnome too close to the right edge of the fabric I cut out. Oh well, I thought I can make this into a small wall quilt to match the book cover and I will pay closer attention to the making of the book cover when I start to make that later. So I made the quilt (scroll down a bit to see it) first and then made the book cover next.

I love how they both came out and I knew Tara would love them both too. 

The front of the composition book cover with a gnome holding a beehive.

 I added the word, "Bee" because that was all that would fit there. 

I found a little bee embroidery appliqué in my things and added it to the cover. I pieced together scraps of blues for the background, since I didn't have a large enough piece of the blue fabric that I used for the back of this cover and for the wall hanging. I love piecing backgrounds as it adds more interest and uses up more scraps. All the fabrics I used for the appliqué were scraps too.

This is the back of the notebook cover. Isn't this the cutest little bee? I found this on Pinterest, but the head was made out of denim. Since I already had some circles cut out of felt (using the circle die cuts from Crafter's Edge), I only needed to cut out the pair of wings and the black stripes.

 I hand blanket stitched around the felt pieces and added the embroidered antennae, stinger and smile. I used little black buttons for his eyes and red buttons for the ends of the antennae. He makes me smile he is so cute!

Inside the book. See there is the folded over sides to hold the book that I forgot about when I started the beekeeper gnome that later became the little wall quilt.

I used All Sew Petite's Pen/Pencil Bookmark Holder (a free tutorial) to add over the notebook so Tara will always have a pen handy. Thanks Monika for this great pen holder tutorial and video!

Here is the pen holder that can be made using scraps of vinyl, cork, or other non-fraying material. 

This is the small size pen holder that will hold 2-3 pens. Monika also includes a wider pen holder that will hold more pens.

The pen holder is made with elastic (I used fold over elastic for this one) and you slide it over the page to use as a bookmark or over the entire outside of the book, however you want to use it.

Here is the little wall quilt that I started making first as the book cover, but had to make it into a wall quilt as I explained earlier. Tara scored double because of my mistake, lol!

I had more space to put the word, Beekeeper on the quilt, so that was nice.

Here they both are together, with the pen holder over the book (the pen is on the back side). I made each gnome in a different direction.

Happy Beekeeping Tara!

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