You put your stuff in it

I've ogled the really cute/pretty/awesome/zippy pouches all over the web and the stores for a long time, but never bought one because whatcha gonna do with that? I don't own any cosmetics. I have a pencil pocket. "What's the point?," I thought.

Everything. As it turns out, everything is the freaking point. Zippy Pouch = Magic. I finally decided to make one, based on this tutorial at Craftster ,just to do a zipper, just because I could. And they're so cute, and what nice gifts they'll make, I thought. I put one together out of upholstery scraps and a muslin lining and I was terrifically pleased with it and with myself, and put it proudly on my sewing table. I showed it to a friend (look what I can do! zipper!). Then I helped her make one. I cranked out a couple of them as quickie Christmas gifts for two little girls we know, then for a friend's birthday, then for another friends birthday. All very last minute and all very pre-digital camera, so no pictures. "So clever," I thought, "Me, with the pouch gifts! Everyone seems to like them, isn't that nice?"

The first one sat on my sewing table for probably 8 months, looking cute and reminding me that I make things sometimes. Finally, I noticed that there were too many little things floating in my new bag that has no inner pockets, and thought, "Sheesh! Well, maybe I could put them all in that little pouch, just for now." The girl scout in me always wants to be prepared, the stage manager in me always wants to have a band-aid, small tube of ibuprofen, chapstick, safety pin on me, though I very rarely get these things out and use them. But now they're always there, in the pouch. Handy. And I can move them from one bag to another just like that. And I can find them all very quickly, because they're right there, in one easily accessible, contained location. I'll say it again: Zippy Pouch = Magic.

Also, since I'm still clever with the gifts, I made this one recently for a friend who was moving. I couldn't help her pack, but I figure her move will be a cinch now that she's got this. I told her, "It's for your stuff. You put your stuff in it." She looked back at me with the crazed face of someone who's been having a showdown with everything she's ever owned, a showdown that's lasted for days already and there's no end in sight. But when she realized that the thing in my hand was for her, really, that I made it for her, she seemed very happy and forgot about the showdown, at least for 90 seconds. I hope she found a place to pack it.

The bottom, because I'm proud of my skillz here:


The inside shot, because I'm proud of using the remains of one of my husband's dead workshirts as lining fabric and remembering to put the chest pocket of the shirt in for an inside pocket: