Linen and Kaffe Lotus Leaf Pouch

I sat down the other night to make some paper pieced pennant blocks for a pouch, and ran into troubles right away. I was tired, so figured I wasn’t in the right condition to keep trying to figure it out.

So I decided to make a new pouch design that I’d been thinking about… the pouch pictured above.

I love Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics. The colors are amazing, the designs are so gorgeous, and the fabrics are luscious to sew on. And Kaffe’s lotus leaf is one of my favorites… and the new color ways are so fantastic.

So i gave it a little bit of thought, and started cutting fabric.

I basically used the same 12×10 measurement that I use for most of my pieced pouches, but it turned it on it’s side, so the pouch is taller than it is wide.

I followed the same construction as other pouches as in my zipper pouch tutorial, with the pieced panel replaced with a 4×10 panel of the Lotus Leaf fabric.

The difference started after the zipper was put in, at this stage in the process:

That’s what the pouch looked when I did the quilting.

I had fused the lining to the batting, and to do the quilting, I used a basting spray that I’ve had luck with in the past to fuse the front of the bag to the lining pieces. That way, everything stayed together so nicely as I did the quilting.

I used two types of quilting in this pouch: straight line quilting on the bottom, and free motion quilting on the top. I used my walking foot for the straight quilting on the bottom of the pouch, and used my quilting stitch regulator for the FMQ on the panel portion.

I used the edge of my walking foot to space the straight line quilting evenly. I love the way it turned out, but I think the proportions are off a little. In future pouches like this that I make, I’ll only do four rows of the straight line quilting. I think that will make the bag feel lighter, and the straight line quilting will stand out more.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to quilt the panel section, but decided to quilt along the different parts of the design. I was thinking it was going to be complicated, but it was really easy and it went very well.

I used a pink thread that blended in fairly well with the colors of the fabric, but in the future, think I’ll just use a light grey thread.

Once the quilting was done, I started with trimming the flat fabric pieces before I zig zagged and sewed the seams. I then followed the tutorial.

I’m so happy with how this quilting turned out. In future pouches like this, I’ll probably do a little more quilting around the design. I think the fabric can take it!

I’m so anxious to make more of these that I’ve already put together combos of Lotus Leaf in different color ways with different body fabric. I have several other color ways in this Kaffe fabric. It’s one of my absolute favorites, and the colors are inspirational! Can’t wait to get started!