January Project Box featuring the Filigree Double Zip Pouch and Good Hair Day!

 Our #marinerscompassprojectboxes are our newest product release at Mariner’s Compass and have been really well received. Thank you! I think that as much as we all love buying fabric for fabric’s sake, it’s a refreshing change to purchase just what you need for a specific project. And let’s face it; I did all the work for you – minus the sewing! My goal is to choose projects that feature the latest and greatest in patterns and fabrics and provide them to you in a format that allows you to sit down, open the box and start the project.

To clarify one small logistical issue, it’s really hard to fit an actual “box” in a priority flat rate envelope, so our project box packaging will mimic a box, while not actually being one. Think of it more like a “brown paper package, tied up with string”. You know, one of MY favorite things.

So, let’s get to the project.

I chose the Good Hair Day fabrics from Kim Andersson and Windham Fabrics for this project because it seemed perfect for traveling and storing all your necessities. Because let’s face it, a good hair day, is a good day.

Sara Lawson’s pattern directions are complete, easy to read and include lots of full color photos to help you with every step of this project. This blog post is not a pattern review, but if it was, it would be a good one. The part of the pattern that I’ll be discussing is the ribbon treatment, or in my case the “faux” ribbon treatment. Sara gives super directions to use beautiful Renaissance Ribbons and fabric covered cording to make the decorative treatment featured on the cover of her pattern. Since I didn’t have ribbon or cording, but did have a perfect fabric piece to mimic ribbon, I parted ways with the pattern and made this step up!
To begin, I chose my “faux” ribbon, the fabric from Good Hair Day that showcases decorated hair combs. The image is stripey in nature and will fit into a 2.5” strip. You can obviously cut your whatever size you choose. If you’re making the large bag (like our sample) you could make it wider and it won’t take away from the pouch. I cut mine 2.5” x 10”, the length Sara recommends for her ribbon. I then cut two strips, each, of the light and teal prints at 1” x 10”.

Press the two white strips in half along the long side so you have two folded strips that now measure
½” x 10” each. Place your “ribbon” fabric right side up on the table and place one folded white strip along the 10” edge of your “ribbon”, raw edges together. Then add a teal strip on top, right side down. You’re making a cheese sandwich and the white folded strip is your cheddar. Stitch all the three together with a ¼” seam allowance and press the seam towards the “ribbon”.  The white piece will be flapping around between the two other fabrics. When I taught this in my shop we called it “the flippy-doo”. Perfect, right?

After your piece is pressed well, flip it over and draw a line ¼” away from your seam allowance on the teal fabric. The pen is pointing to this line in the photo. Fold the edge of the teal fabric up to this line and press to create a finished edge on the teal and finish your decorative faux ribbon.

At this point you can continue to follow the directions as written to complete your pouch.

 

My thoughts about the products used in this project box:

·         Annie’s Soft and Stable foam interfacing rocks the party. I’ll be featuring this product in it’s own blog post soon. We currently carry the Soft and Stable and some of Annie's 30” double slide zippers as well as a few of her patterns.

·         Renaissance Ribbons are beautiful and can add that certain something to lots of different projects. While I don’t carry these at this time, many local and online quilt shops do. In our local coastal Maine area, contact Alewives Fabrics for your ribbon needs and tell Rhea I sent you! .

·         I have always told people that I am a thread snob. It’s true. We used Aurifil Mako 50 cotton thread in this project to match the blue from the fabrics. You can find our favorite neutral threads from Aurifil on our website in two different sizes. Also stay tuned for Thursday’s newsletter when I announce our quarterly thread club details!

That’s it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it. How about a give-away to thank you for reading? Leave me a comment or question below about this project and one commenter will win an Aurifil Thread Sampler pack showcasing all the reasons why I am a thread snob! I’ll pick a winner from the comments on Monday night after dinner. See you next time!