Girl Friday Sews: Office in a Pouch

So as I said a while back, even though the blog hop is over, Girl Friday Sews type projects are going to be coming by here every once in a while to visit. My Bunny is finishing up another year of her AWANA Bible club in the next two weeks, and I'm trying to finish a few gifts for her teachers. Last year I made these portfolios which were a big hit. This year I'm giving them an Office in a Pouch. The pattern isn't mine -- I based it entirely on Ayumi's adorable Patchwork Wristlet, enlarging it to a 9 x 14" size and forgoing the patchwork to save time. I added an extra layer of interfacing in the lining to help with stability since I was making it larger and not doing any quilting on the exterior. The darling hippo fabric came in a scrap pack from Fabricworm -- best scrap packs out there, people. You will not be sorry if you order one of these, I promise you. The lining fabrics are both from Comma by Zen Chic, such a great line full of incredibly versatile blenders.

When I showed the pouch to my husband, he asked, "What does milk have to do with hippos?" I smiled and answered, "Nothing, except that it's completely adorable."

I'm filling my pouches with office supplies: a pen, paper clips, binder clips, post-it notes, washi tape, and a small journal. There's still room for receipts, bills, stamps, lists -- all those things that can so easily sink to the bottom of a purse and get lost forever. I'll have pictures of the other three pouches to share in a day or two. Several of you asked for a tutorial for my patchwork bag also, so I'll be putting that together this week as well. Thanks for the encouragement!

Whenever I plan to make several versions of a project, I always do a practice run first. There are a few little flaws in this one that happened when I was figuring out exactly how I wanted to put it together, so I guess I'll just have to keep it for myself...

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday.