I love this sewing pattern! Its free, very easy to follow, and is a brilliant way to build your confidence attaching zips.

The tutorial is by Katie from Sweet Verbena, you can find it in this post.  Its a wonderful pattern for beginners, as it introduces you to the basics of quilting, AND gets you sewing a zip, all in a really accessible way.  I highly recommend giving it a go if you are new to either of these things, it will give you a real confidence boost.  Plus you’ll have a delightful little pencil case to use when you are finished (or make-up case, or general bits and bobs carrier – at the moment my toddler loves anything like this for carrying her treasures around, so I may not get much use out of it straight away).

This pencil pouch is made from two 3.5″ x 9.5″ rectangles of fabric.  I always prefer creating paper patterns to follow rather than drawing straight on to fabric.  Mainly because I find it easier in the long run, and then I have the pieces to re-use over and over.  If you feel the same, you can download my pattern template here.  I’m not taking any credit for the design, it’ll just save you a job drawing out your own.

I did a really simple bit of quilting doing diagonal lines (very therapeutic sewing).  If you want to try this too you’ll notice a couple of notches on the pattern piece which you can transfer to your fabric.  Join the two lines together using an air erasable pen and use this as a guide for your first sewn line.  After that, just use the width of the presser foot on your sewing machine to create all other lines.  Its a really easy way of making the pattern evenly spaced, and when you come to sew the pieces together the lines will match up at the seam, creating a lovely herringbone pattern

This project could take as little or as much time as you’d like to give it.  Making the over-all pencil pouch is very straight forward, and then its up to you how intricate you’d like your quilting pattern to be.  This could be a really good project for trying out a more fancy design for the first time (practice makes perfect), or you could keep it really simple and have finished your pencil case in an evening.

If you love to sew, why not sign up to my Creative Sewing Challenge?  You’ll receive a new prompt each month to inspire your sewing.  Sign up below, or find out more here.

And feel free to share my pin on Pinterest if you think anyone who follows you might like to take part too…

Thanks for dropping by my blog, happy sewing!

Amy