Noodlehead’s Pencil Pouch

This is the second time I’ve made this cute little pencil pouch by Noodlehead. The first was a modified version for my sister so she could hold all her larger crochet hooks. This time I decided to take a bunch of my scraps from other projects and do an assembly-line sew of five different pouches. I had already decided on the fabrics and zippers before starting this but I was really curious if doing them assembly-line style would cut down on my overall sewing time. But one of the problems I have is that I like to match my thread to my fabrics (even when I’m not top-stitching…I know it’s a waste of the really good thread but sometimes it does show through). I technically cut everything out separately because I’m not great at cutting things out with my rotary cutter and I don’t have a sturdy template for this pouch. Even with the separate cutting and fusing and changing the thread, I really did get a great time out of the whole project. I decided to cut out all the pieces, fuse the interfacing, and then sew each bag together. This way I didn’t need to change thread as often. I did modify the pattern to add some fusible fleece because I was mostly using cotton fabric and I felt like the bag needed some ummph. But I cut the fleece down to keep it out of the seam allowance so the seams wouldn’t be too bulky. I also decided to add zipper tabs to each end of the zipper because I think it just looks more finished.

This pattern was very easy to read. The one thing I didn’t do but will try next time is to make a little loop of fabric that can be attached to the side. They are super cute but feel like they’re missing something and I think the loop would be a good little handle and help with opening the zipper. Unfortunately I didn’t come up with that idea until the end. All in the five I made took me a little over 8 hours so that worked about to just over one and half hours each. I think this is a great way to use up some scraps of the designer fabric and be able to make something else to put in the shop. I also like the idea of making little scissor cozies for the project bags I’ll be making.

I tried using my new sew-in tags but I think these are too small for that look. I also had trouble designing my hang tags and feel like there isn’t enough space for the seam allowance. I think I’ll stick to my iron-on labels. The best part about them is that if you forget to put them in you can just iron them onto the finished product at the end!

The Details:
Pattern: The Pencil Pouch by Noodlehead
Zippers: a variety of #5 zippers from My Handmade Space
Interfacing: SF101 and Fusible Fleece
Finished bag size: 10.5”w x 3.5”h x 1.75”d