Up the Orchard Path - Zakka Week 11

After last week's project, Week 11 on the Zakka trail is a walk-in-the-park, or to be more precise - a walk-on-the-orchard path. One small zip and a few hexagons, neither of which should present too much of a problem if you have been on the trail from the start, and you will be done in a couple of hours at most.  Just follow Amanda Jenning's straight-forward instructions.

This week I am staying with my sister, Lea, for a nice relaxing break. The fact that I brought with me more sewing equipment than clothes tells you I had watched the weather forecast and was ready for the torrential rain we are having. So this Zakka Monday Lea and I sat down, side-by-side to chose fabrics and set up our sewing machines. My sister chose a black background with applique hearts whilst I stuck pretty closely to the pattern with a black-and-white check and hand-stitched hexagons. However, we both decided to change the size of this project as, rather than the 9½" x 6¾" pouch detailed in Zakka Style (compiled by Rashida Coleman-Hale) ,my sister and I both wanted a little coin purse for our handbag.   

This was easily achieved by not enlarging the template provided in the book.  Instead we added ¼” sew allowance to the pouch template.  We used the corner detail placement markings again adding ¼” seam allowance all around, to create corner detail cut outs.   Lea created small heart appliqué shapes, fusing them onto Bondaweb before hand-stitching them to the pouch.  I used the hexagon template exactly as sized in the book and folded in ¼” all the way round, before tacking and stitching as detailed in the book.  As you can see, I slightly changed the placement of the hexagons so as to fit neatly on the pouch.

Both of our Orchard Path coin pouches went together fairly easily, measuring 5” x 3½” when completed.  Lea hadn’t inserted a zip in anything before and this was only my third project which involved zips.  All went according to plan with no problems so I have no tips to give as none are needed.  Needless to say we are both feeling quite pleased with ourselves.

Now that Lea has been initiated into the Zakka world she is eyeing up my zip organizer and picking fabrics – (“put that one down it’s mine”  - strewth – I have to watch her all the time as my stash is getting smaller and smaller whilst hers is growing and growing!!).

Aside from this small project, I am finishing off my summer ‘blackbird’ runner which I shall show you all very soon and I have completed my ‘tea and cake’ mug rug for the newly formed sew-along at work.  I used fabric from a charm pack sent in a recent mug rug swap.  What do you think?  Should I add a page with the pattern for this little beauty?  Let me know in a comment below but that's all folks - until next time.