Zip Your Lips

I'm still planning to follow along with the Zip A Bag series over at Ikat Bag, but I was feeling too nervous to tackle the darted pouch this week.  That makes no sense.  My Nancy Drew bag is darted and lined and I did that without a pattern.  Same with Quinn's Bigfoot Hunting Backpack. But I'd had a migraine for a couple of days and just reading the tutorial and thinking about making the darted pouch work made me a little queasy. That's no reflection on LiEr's instructions -- my eleven-year-old's math problems were having the same effect on me. 

So I tried this instead -- 

I used the Zip Your Lips Pouch Tutorial from A Beautiful Mess, which I found on Pinterest ages ago. Instead of following her instructions for the lining and zipper, I used the tricks I learned on my last zippered pouch.  This one isn't as perfect as I'd like, but it came out much better. I think my pattern pieces printed way too small, which gave it an extra challenge.

The zipper is from my estate sale stash. I wanted something metal that would draw extra attention to itself. I cut a couple of inches off of each end after adding the zipper stops, which gives me hope for the rest of that random pile of zippers.  And I colored over the top stitching with a red marker to make it a little less obvious. Next time, I'll be better about using thread to match the bag instead of the neutral spool that lives on my sewing machine.