Friday, February 26, 2010

Hello, My Name is Janet and I Have Ziphobia (yeah,it's a real word)

Hello friends, thanks for stopping by and listening to my jibber jabber yet once again. I'm going to let you all in on a well hidden secret...Close the door, I don't want anyone else to hear this (she looks over her shoulder cautiously). I am scared to death of ........God this is hard to admit....ZIPPERS! Yes she who loves sewing, has an array of sewing machines at her disposal, a library full of sewing books and oodles of YouTube tutorials, is petrified of zippers. There..I said it...man, I feel so liberated!
This is the kind of bag I want to master. This is an adorable pouch by Lireca, a wonderful shop on Etsy. She obviously mastered the zipper long ago. Until now that darn zipper closure has been my nemesis. I've tried many times and have never been happy with the results. I finally found a tutorial on YouTube and she actually numbered all her segments. It was so easy to follow..I love YouTube for tutorials. That's how I taught myself to knit..cool!  So after a few episodes of Little House On the Prairie (Mary went blind..again!) I had myself a zippered pouch.
And here she is making her International blog debut....Miss. Bumble Bee Zippered Pouch!  I even lined her...Man , I'm so proud of myself ;-) I plan on whipping up lots of these babies. It is a great way for me to use up all my many remnant pieces of gorgeous fabric. Give me a little time and they will start popping up in my Etsy shop. I'm so excited that I conquered my fear...now on to bungee jumping.

I have also been working on developing a few patterns for some small folded pouches. I'm looking for ways to use all my lovely quilting cottons (I don't quilt...sorry Kelly Ann).  I think these are looking very pretty. They are the size of a eyeglass case and can be used in lots of ways.

I had a lot of fun adding my signature (that sounds so pompous) embellishments. My sewing machine will sew dozens of fancy stitches and I had fun trying some of them out.  Of course my vintage chenille and laces came out to play also.


Yo-Yo's and jumbo rikrak joined in the fun too. All my new pouches are lined with fabric as pretty as the outside. As soon as I get all my patterns finalized and zipper techniques mastered, I will list these in my shop.
Until next time..be kind and stay creative. A special thank you to all of you who have embraced my Pieday blogs..your kind comments mean so much to me. Be sure to come by next Friday for a classic, lattice topped beauty!

11 comments:

Patricia said...

I have absolutely no sewing skills so I can´t really have a say but... this looks great to me! I love the pouches wit the yo-yo´s and the rikrak. Congrats on (trying to)conquering your fear!

Patricia

Unknown said...

Great job, you did it! You should be proud of yourself!

Tweed Thoughts said...

Well done Janet, there's no stopping you now!! World domination next, hehe! I love your folded pouches - so pretty :)

Unknown said...

Love the pouches and I love your writing! You strike me as the kind of person to attack a challenge and master it. (the pie, the zippers)
That gives me inspiration to overcome my fear of painting skin tones, which is holding me back just as much as your ziphobia was... thanks!

Annie said...

I must say I really love your fabric combinations. Your pouches are really pretty and well done for the zippy bag.
A x

Kelly Ann said...

Did you know that I'm a fortune teller??? so let me look into my crystal ball...yep your gonna quilt one day...it's true I see it in your future....LOL

Aprons and More said...

I am so proud!! They are beautiful! I glad you conquered your fears...and found a great way to use all those remnants. Can't wait to see what makes it into the shop! Have fun!!

Katy :)

Wanda..... said...

If you bungee jump, I will too. Your creations are beautiful Janet, love the material. My mother was a quilter, she made over 200, one was covered with yo yo's...it weighed a ton!

JennyMac said...

Those pouches are ADORABLE!!!!

Annette said...

I'm so proud of you!! Today the zipper, tomorrow the quilt!!! I made the pineapple pie this weekend and put a picture on my blog. It was delish!!

My Life Under the Bus said...

...wait....Mary's BLIND?.....runs screaming into the prarie........