Bay Area Modern Quilting hosted a swap for guild members, due at today's meeting. The theme was Mini + Metal. We had to create something that was 6" or smaller... could be a bag, a needle book, pin cushion, mug rug -- the possibilities are endless. And some component of the item/gift had to include metal. This could be part of it's construction, or an addition, like needles in a needle book or pins in a pin cushion.

My head spun with possibilities and I decided this would be a great opportunity for making a zipper pouch with a metal tooth zipper – something I hadn't ever done. (This was a popular choice in the swap!) I decided to size down the small size Open Wide Zipper Pouch by Noodlehead and ordered 8" black zippers with silver nickel teeth and donut zipper pull from Zipit Zippers on Etsy.

I was making for Rhonda and wasn't quite sure about her style. I decided to pick a bold floral print from my stash to drive my color palette. The outer fabrics were all chosen from the floral that I used to line the bag.

My panels were 5" x 8" which was sized down from the small size by Noodlehead. The bag has a 3" box corner. The front panel features my Planned Improv: All About Angles technique. The back was a single cut from The Lovely Hunt Unicorn fabric by Lizzy House from my stash. (Since the bag was so small, the unicorn from the print wasn't included in this project.)

The final details was to create the zipper tab from the Lovely Hunt fabric. I chose to hand stitch it in place with running stitch using a 12wt cotton Aurifil. I always have a bit of a struggle to sew the tab on by machine. With the metal zipper I didn't want to attempt machine stitching.

I love how it turned out, though I might try making a 2.5" box corner if I make this size again. It was so fun to deliver the gift today to Rhonda. :-)

I'm linking up to Brag About Your Beauties.