There’s another sew along for Aneela Hoey’s book Stitched Sewing Organisers run this time  by Stacey @craftylilmouse and Zena @mycreativelypottylife over on IG

Stacey was my swap partner for the #Saturdaynightcraftalong and since then I’ve hugely enjoyed watching what she makes and her posts both on IG and blog. I was really pleased  she embarked on this and it plays perfectly for those who didn’t get caught up in the previous sew along which ran a cracking pace over the winter.

I dipped in occasionally to that sew along and made these items from the book.

And aside from the triple pouch which is the second picture and involved a lot of fabric for a multi pouch, they are designs I will do again  and are perfect for gifting. In fact the last item, the see through pouch with the mice,  was for Stacey as an extra.

But this Sew Along is a different. For a start it’s at a more genteel pace of making an item a month rather than every week.  And if you don’t fancy that item then you can simply choose another.

The monthly project for May was the fold up pouch. Now I didn’t make any of these last time but they looked sweet and functional so I decided to have a go.

I’d got some leftover strips of the Amy Sinibaldi Dollhouse fabrics and these were perfect.

I had lots of much smaller scraps of these beautiful fabrics from the quilt I made last week  and inspired by a chain of tiny flying geese by Sam @samanthamackie31 I thought they were the perfect candidate for making a feature out of the band that holds the flap down.

In fact I’m not really a fan of these flaps and bands as a way of securing a pouch  so decidedly perversely to make a feature of them. In terms of tips I made the band stick up quite proud of the front of the pouch as you can see in the picture to accommodate the flap.

I also tapered the flap seams – see below. The problem I had with pouches 1 and 2, despite the bands sticking up slightly, the flap itself was still a bit  crumpled when in the band because it was the same width. The tapering on the big version worked a treat.

 

I always enjoy birthing these bags so to speak and seeing the final thing….

To this….. well after a bit of pushing out and ironing!

And that brings me onto the other main difference between these two Sew Alongs is this time you can play with the designs. I took full advantage of this with making a larger version and the tassels. They are helpful to pull the flap through the band but the jury is out whether they are a big naff!! There’s also wadding in the bigger one as well.

With the first Sew Along they had prizes and everyone who’d entered their creation had a chance of winning so I can quite understand why they had to be strict on this point of sticking to the original design. But for a free ranger like me, and I suspect a lot of other people, the pattern is just the start. I’m not alone in wanting to make things differently, to tailor it to my needs or I just want to make it more individual. Either way being constrained didn’t work for me. It didn’t stop me making the items a bit different where called on but I just didn’t submit them and you felt slightly disloyal not sticking to the pattern! Anyway no such scruples this time!

I’m sure having  prizes and giveaways for these sorts of things ups the anti but I have slightly mixed views about these. A topic for another day and whilst I’ve never had a giveaway myself I am sort of venturing into that territory today but it has strings attached, metaphorically at least!

You may have heard of ‘paying it forward’? The principle is that a maker makes and sends a small sewn gift to say up to  3 people but, and here is the condition, once each has received their gift they then have to pay it forward by finding another 3 people to send a gift to within 6 months. These new recipients also need to be prepared to find and then make for 3 others who agree to do the same and so on.

If everybody stuck to this over a 5/6 year period, assuming a turnaround every 4-6 months, then over 60,000 people would have received and made. I suspect life will get in the way but let’s get this ball rolling. So if you’d like to receive something I’ve made over the next few months and on receiving it within 6 months you are willing to find 3 others to make for but they also in turn agree to make for someone else on receiving your gift then do let me know below. I will post something on IG as well and will randomly select 3 names, 1 each from my blog and IG and then the third from either. I won’t pick anyone until this post has been up for a week. I’m happy to ship internationally.

And just to manage expectations I think we can rule out a king sized quilt being sent but something hopefully attractive and functional with a modern vibe.    Indeed Aneela’s book just might be useful inspiration! Oh and if you are deathly allergic to cats best not apply because any new item is subject to a cat inspection whether asked for or not….

Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts