Don't Let the Cat Out of the Bag: A Pouch for Secret Santa

Howdy y'all! I told you I wasn't done with my crazy sewing yet! This post is less impressive than my quilt finish (if I had the time, I'd sew myself a trophy! LOL), but I am proud of it for different reasons.

Literally all the pens in my pocket plus my label making pen. Not enough energy to come up with good props. Lol.

My work hosts a Christmas party every year and part of the festivities is a Secret Santa gift exchange! I love surprises and giving gifts, so Secret Santa is right up my alley! To make it easier, everybody is supposed to list a few things they like to help out the person who draws their name. This year, the person I drew wasn't working the day we wrote down the clues, so all I had to work on was 'Cats'. Yes, that's right. Cats.

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur...happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr...

I decided on a pouch as a starting point fairly quickly. I've only made one pouch before, but I found this uber cute flannel with cats on it and before I knew it, I had the flannel and a zipper at the checkout of Jo Ann's. I found a basic tutorial here, but I definitely pulled from Svetlana's tutorial that I used in my first pouch. My first pouch (made wayyyyy back here) was a bit rough in construction, but it helped me think about how I wanted to improve. I knew I wanted to add zipper tabs (I used this tutorial as a guide and found it quite helpful) and I wanted to clean up the close on the lining. All those orange peel blocks paid off because I used the same ladder stitch to make that invisible finish! :)

I've never been prouder of stitches I can't even see!

I also added a neat-o little label on the inside. For some reason, it made my bag feel fancier, even if the label was hand written. :) When I set my two pouches side-by-side, I couldn't help but be proud of the improvement I saw. I don't like to brag, but I really feel like I'm growing in my sewing and quilting. It really made my day when my Mom was talking about my quilting and she talked about the differences she could see. I know she was comparing a quilt I made her in Janurary versus Missed Punchline finished recently, which was for her mother. And thing is, until she pointed it out, I hadn't noticed the differences!

One of a kind, LBCQ original!

Sorry for the rambling, but I know you guys will understand where I'm coming from! Hope you guys have an awesome week. If you're working on Christmas sewing, what are you making? How close are you to meeting your deadline?

Happy Sewing, y'all! :)