A girly gift

Pinterest wins again. It has been so useful to save pictures of projects I want to make "eventually" to my boards on Pinterest. I had come upon some cute travel jewelry bags a while back, and the time came this week to try one out. 

I picked out four fabrics from my stash that I thought were fun together but not too "matchy" and I think it turned out looking quite cute! I really like that curio print on the inside of the pouch, it adds a little something girly. As if the pink wasn't girly enough... 

The construction is essentially two discs of fabric sewn together to form pockets around the inside for small items like rings and earrings, and the drawstring closure creates a larger pouch to hold necklaces and bracelets. I referred to the tutorials here and here but improvised my own circles based on the size plate I had handy in my cupboard. A bit of ribbon cinches the whole thing up and makes me happy I decided to line it with polka dots. How happy looking is that?

At first I thought it was going to be HUGE based on the measurements in the patterns and the pieces I cut out, but as it turns out, of course once you sew seams and get everything together and cinched it isn't overly big at all. My inner circles were 11" in diameter, smaller than either of the two tutorials, and I wouldn't go much smaller than that. 

This was really fun and quick to make, and I liked getting to play with my fabrics to find a suitably quirky combination. I will be gifting this one (shhh!!!) but I would love to make myself one of these and a matching laundry bag like I made for Dave to take along when I am traveling. This might be a good project to play around with some decorative stitching and trims, too to make it even more snazzy. Should be fun experimenting.