A sweet zipper pouch

Last week a new friend from book group celebrated her birthday. Annie is smart, sassy, and wickedly funny. There is nothing like a new friend crush to motivate me to do a little sewing, so I sewed this sweet little zipper pouch up and gifted it at book group (the night before surgery!).

Annie's favorite color is yellow. I don't have a ton of yellow in my stash, but the yellow Lizzy House pearl bracelet print is one of my favorites so I stuck it inside where it would be sure to bring happiness whenever Annie opens up her pouch! For the exterior I grabbed my scraps and pulled out these sweet squares for the front, and a favorite unicorn for the back. I went for whimsical and fun, knowing Annie's daughter would put this to use if it was too girly for the Birthday Girl herself. 

A year ago I started sorting my scraps into squares and strips, so I had these 2.5in squares handy after making the far, far away unicorn quilt a few weeks ago.

In the last year my pouch-making skills have improved dramatically. Not only is my stitching better, my zipper ends look cleaner. And, design-wise, I have really fallen in love with Essex linen and how it can class up the simplest of projects. Yep, I'm proud of myself. My sewing is getting better. Less approximate!

Annie loved the pouch. Yay!