Christmas Zip Pouches

It's been nice over this past weekend to sit down and make a start on my Christmas sewing. I'm not hand making much this year in terms of sewing, but I do have plans over the next couple of weeks to do some serious baking and make some edible treats for family and friends.

First on my Christmas sewing list were some gifts for Anna's kindergarten teachers. On Saturday the two of us got out my small stash of Christmas fabric and Anna chose what she would like. I offered to do patchwork but she was insistent that she wanted just one fabric for each pouch.

This red and yellow birds and baubles print was one I picked up in the post Christmas sales a couple of years ago at my local store. They were getting rid of it for about $3 a metre so I bought some in both red and blue.

The blue colour way is my favourite as it's a bit different from the usual Christmas colours and it has lovely gold highlights as well.

Anna sat on my lap as we sewed a few quilting lines through the fabric and cotton batting, which makes the pouch sturdier. She loved her first time sewing at the machine so I think I'll have to come up with a few simple projects for her.

To fill the pouches for her teachers, our plan is to pick up a couple of pretty notebooks and pens when we are next shopping, and then include some handmade biscuits or chocolate treats like rocky road or rum balls.

While I was in the zone, I grabbed my scrap basket and made a couple of quilt-as-you-go panels and sewed them up into another Christmas pouch.

For the first side I used a scene from a Christmas fabric I bought last year, which is a lovely soft cotton with vintage style Christmas scenes printed on it. The rest is scrappy bits of greens and reds, and a small piece of a Christmas Russian Doll print.

The other side is a bit more scrappy as the feature piece is smaller, and includes a scrap of a Kate Spain Christmas print, some Little Apples, some Chevron and a piece of the cute Mini Santa fabric that I used long ago for this dress I made for Lucy's first Christmas. Wow she has grown since then! The cream fabrics really stand out from the fabrics that have white backgrounds in this photo, but it isn't as obvious when you are looking at it directly.

Not sure what I'll do with this pouch, but it's always handy to have gifts ready to go for the occasional spontaneous get together with friends. Or maybe I'll just keep it for myself! I really love making quilt-as-you-go pouches. Putting all those pieces together is fun and using up really small scraps is so satisfying.

What's on your Christmas sewing to-do list?

Linking up with Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday.