No. 12 of my Finish Along List for Q1 is finished!
Due to my deep finger cut, I did not manage to send the gift to my swap partner. I am very grateful that my partner, Daniela @dani.backhaus, was very understanding.
This was one of my early 2026 goals, and I am happy to tell you that it got finished. Whoohoo! I sent my package last week, and now that she has confirmed it arrived successfully, I can show it to you, too.
I like things where you can “pack” something. A little pouch or a small bag.
Regarding color and fabric choices, I got almost free rein as she had quite a few things she liked. One of them was pink-orange combinations. That I can do ;)
I picked the Oleander Pouch from @sotakhandmade. It is a fairly big pouch with three different pockets. One zippered on the outside/front, two on the inside – one a slip pocket, one a divided elastic pocket with three compartments. It reminds me of a toiletry bag – though I am sure you could as well sort sewing supplies or other items.
And it has a fun accent bottom.
What I also love about it is the open wide zipper closure. The pouch stays open, and you can easily access all your things inside. A must for me with a pouch ;)
I had a bit of trouble with the binding. Though I am sure it was not due to the pattern, but for my own lack of experience and “talent” with 3D objects.
I prefer to add binding by machine. If you have been here longer, you know that I hate handsewing ;)
So instead of following the pattern, I attempted to attach the binding on the inside first, then fold it out. My idea was that if I could not avoid the hand-stitching, the soft fabric on the outside would be easier to stitch through by hand than the zipper on the inside.
But the measurements of the binding strip, or my technique, did not work well for attaching inside first. So in the end, I attached it on the outside per the pattern. As feared, I was not able to “catch” the opposite side with my machine stitches, and I was not going to attempt hand stitches on the zipper side.
So how was I going to fix it? My solution was to use a zig-zag stitch. I had used this option on a few quilts and loved it there. And it did help here, too.
If I were to sew another bag, I would probably go with this solution from the get-go to avoid unstitching numerous times ;) Also, maybe a wider binding strip would help me with folding it over far enough to catch?
I hope the pouch will be well-loved and used.
So far this quarter
Best wishes,
xo Melanie
