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Sew Your Scraps into a Patchwork Fold Over Pouch

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photo of a fold over zipper pouch made from patchwork pinwheel blocksI love a good patchwork project but I’m not always wanting to take on making a whole quilt.  Sometimes I want to just make some patchwork squares and turn it into something pretty.  That could be lots of things besides quilts.  Like this adorable patchwork fold over pouch!  Quilted clothing and accessories have become super trendy lately.  Melissa at Polka Dot Chair created this project and she has a tutorial showing how you can sew this pretty patchwork pouch.

If larger patchwork blocks on a quilt are pretty, these smaller scale patchwork blocks in this pouch are sending me over the moon.  They’re just so sweet!  And because they’re made from half square triangles, they’re actually pretty quick to sew together.  Her tutorial includes how to create 8 of these half square triangles at a time.

This is a great project for using up your scraps!  This project uses a ½ yard of a solid fabric and then a total of ½ yard of scraps of various prints.  As long as your scraps are big enough to cut a 5 ¾” square then you can use them.  And pairing the scraps with a solid color in all of your blocks helps keep the look both scrappy but also cohesive.

And while the small pinwheel blocks are perfect for this project, I think you could also substitute other quilt blocks – or even some orphan blocks left over from quilt projects.  

When you’ve got all your blocks made, it’s easy to sew them into a fold over pouch.  It’s basically a larger version of a simple zipper pouch.  If you’ve ever sewn a zipper pouch before, you know how satisfying they are to sew.  Quick, easy, and always useful!  And in this case, a stylish patchwork pouch!

Go to Polka Dot Chair to see how to sew this adorable patchwork pinwheel fold over pouch.

[photo credit: Polka Dot Chair]

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Mosaic Knit Shawl Patterns

I have a special fondness for mosaic knitting as a step up from knitting stripes. It’s still pretty easy to do and makes really pretty effects in a knitting project. If you’ve never tried it (or even if you have) these mosaic knit shawls are a fun way to show off the technique.

Add some bands of mosaic colorwork along with stripes to a triangular shawl to give it a more dramatic look. The Malibu pattern from Isabell Kraemer uses sport weight yarn and can be worked in two or three colors (three is shown here). It’s worked from the top down and you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

Cheryl Faust’s Dark Matter Shawl is another top down triangle, but this one has an allover mosaic pattern with color changes. It can be worked in fingering or sport weight yarn and it’s easy to adjust the size to work with different yarn weights if you want. Check it out on Ravelry.

Chevronopolis is a shifting chevron shawl designed by Maxim Cyr that uses two colors of sport weight yarn. One of them is multicolored so it adds another layer of complexity without making the knitting any harder. This one is also on Ravelry.

Another fun graphic shawl design (and also on Ravelry) is the Pendants pattern from Justyna Lorkowska. This one uses fingering weight yarn with one solid and one gradient with long color changes to make the diamond motifs different colors.

Mix and match mosaic patterns with the Trail Mix Shawl from Industrial Whimsy on Etsy. There are 10 different patterns that you can mix and match or repeat however you like. The design can be worked in two colors or up to 20 colors using mini skeins of sock yarn.

Of course mosaic can be combined with stripes and with other techniques such as lace. The Callisto pattern from Strickwetter uses mosaic designs, stripes and lace in three colors of sock weight yarn. This reminds me of a shawl I knit as a gift a long time ago and I wish I’d made one for myself!