Boxy

I love when people post links to tutorials that are really easy to make and AWESOME. Thank you, thank you, AfricanKelli. I would love to make all the things you made this summer, but for right now I'm happy that I found a simple pattern and the time to actually MAKE it. yay!

The original tutorial is here, at Indie House, a quilting blog I was previously unfamiliar with. Kelli used canvas instead of separate lining and interfacing and I agree, this does make for a nice sturdy, boxy-box. It's also very cool that I found a yard and a half of canvas in my stash (while filling my Iraqi love boxes), and now I have a use for it. I also have 20+ vintage zippers which, though a little creaky, work great for this project.

I adjusted the pattern a bit-- using 10" x 5" rectangles and adding pull tabs to each end for easier opening/closing. Now it fits pens :)

I read in the comments of the original tute that some people are finding ways to cover the raw edges on the inside of the pouch, which i think I'll have to play around with because the canvas frays pretty quickly.

The pink tree fabric is the one I got on Friday at PurlPatchwork. It's so nice to actually use a new fabric right away instead of letting it sit in my stash for months til it's not "new" anymore.

I bought a piece of furniture for the sewing room at an estate sale on Saturday, it's an old shelf, pretty big, and now I'm in the process of sorting my stash onto it. Once it looks pretty enough to photograph I'll show you...