I decided to enlarge the I Spy pattern to accommodate the Joni Tote templates I bought from Sew Hungry Hippie. I know I am mixing pattern companies, but I don’t care.
I have only made one other enlarged I Spy. The pouch came out ok, but was just a bit short for holding the Joni templates. 🙁 Part of the reason is that I had already cut the lining for some reason. I think it might have been leftover and I was trying to use it up.
This is part of the reason I buy bag patterns. Still, I have plenty of large templates and will use this pouch for the Mistflower Water bottle carrier (Minikins Season 4) templates.
Large Fairytale I Spy with templates
After realizing my error, I wondered if I put the sizes from the pattern into a spreadsheet if I could figure out different sizes by some calculation. I haven’t tried it yet, but am undeterred.
I used some measurements for the handle from another handle and must have forgotten how to measure. It works, but is a little small.
One of the first projects I finished on my vacation was an I Spy pouch. I wanted to make one for the Chaos templates. There are a lot of them and I want them to be corralled.
The largest size of the I Spy pouch wasn’t large enough for the templates, so I decided to make a larger one.
I wanted to make the new pouch 12×12 inches-ish. I got confused using Mary’s ruler and the pouch ended up being about 10×12 inches.
Fairytale I Spy with templates
When I got home I found that the templates all fit, but the I Spy pouches are pretty flat, at least this one is, so the zipper doesn’t quite close. If I had made it with SF101 instead of the Sewfisive foam from Sewfisticated, it probably would have worked perfectly. I love that foam so much, though!
That fairytale fabric was in my pile of backing fabric. I have a few pieces of novelty fabric that have been hanging around for awhile. I thought about donating it, but decided to use it here. It’s fun and provides a good name for yet another I Spy!
As it is, it will do for now. I’ll make another larger one soon and use this one for something else.
I am pretty excited about how well I matched the horizontal zipper tabs on this one. I also feel like this pouch has a delicate look to it.
Pink Echinacea I Spy – small
This pouch will house Purse Tab templates. Mary and I talked about these when we were riveting the other day. They could be used on the Oxbow Tote to reinforce the side, which was an area we decided would be detrimental to rivet, because it would cut the thread on the side seam.
Pink Echinacea I Spy – small – back
I also top stitched this one since I used the stick-on interfacing, like the other two.
I mentioned making multiple I Spy pouches when I talked about the Poppy I Spy the other day.
I made all three in assembly-line fashion, so they all got done at once and I made the same mistakes with all, which was forgetting the interfacing! 😉
Rose I Spy – medium
The lining fabric on this pouch is a Heather Bailey print. I only had a fat quarter, or only had a fat quarter left, and fussy cut it so the rose would show up when the bag was empty. The motif would also be a nice surprise when I take out the templates out of the bag.
Somehow the Echinacea print doesn’t clash too badly with the roses. At least I don’t think so. I like using different prints for the lining as it helps me associate a certain template with a certain pouch.
Rose I Spy – medium for the Newfoundland templates
This pouch will be used for the Newfoundland pouch templates. The Newfoundland is a little like the Sew Together Bag as it has an accordion section in the middle creating some organization. It has a similar feel.
I haven’t made the Newfoundland before. Now that I have been reminded that I have the templates, I will put it on my list to try.
I cleared out a box of acrylic templates that had been in my fabric closet for awhile. I wanted to be reminded what was in there. I was surprised to find some smaller templates as well the large ones I knew were in there. I am sure I had a plan when I put the small templates in the box, but I didn’t remember the plan when I found them.
I still want to make a bag for large templates, but that is a project for another day. On that day, I decided to make 3 more I Spy pouches, one for each of the template sets.
I like to highlight a special fabric on the lining. I had very little of the Anna Maria Poppy (Bright Eyes??) left, so I decided to use one of them for this pouch. The last time I used this fabric was for the Andalusian pouch.
This large I Spy will be used for the Mustang Purse Organizer templates. I made a set of these for my Mom in 2021. I have a vivid memory of making them in my machine’s old location, which was before I redid the whole room.
Poppy I Spy – large, back
For some reason, I forgot to interface the pieces so I added a bit of the Sewfisticated 2mm stick on interfacing right before I closed the turning pocket. It was a little tricky to get the paper off the stick-on side of the interfacing, but I managed it in the end. This interfacing is much thicker than the SF101 called for in the pattern, but it worked.
The interfacing made the pouch very stiff. I top stitched around the whole edge. It made the pouch very structured and I kind of like the feel.
Poppy I Spy – large for Mustang templates
I am also using some tags I bought for another purpose to label the pouches. Thus far, I have been relying on post-it notes, which are unreliable in this context. All of the templates are engraved, but the words are hard to see sometimes.
I did make an I Spy pouch with the poppy print before. I would say ‘great minds think alike’, but I don’t think one can say that when it is yourself! LOL!
I quickly made this pouch for Tim as a gift. I usually make him a gift, but for some reason I didn’t plan ahead for him. I will in 2026.
I rounded the corners of this version as it was easier to sew. I also used some great hand-dyed fabric that Sonja made for me a long time ago. It is precious so I save it for special projects.
Green I Spy for Tim-back
Tim loves everything green and he uses the bags I give him, so I decided to use some of this precious fabric for him.
I had a tough time deciding what to make for Carrie and Sue for Christmas. I don’t want to just make them anything. I want what I make to be useful. Eventually, after considering several Minikins patterns I hadn’t tried, I decided on I Spy pouches.
Is this a cop out?
No.
Sue’s I Spy – back
As I have said before, these pouches are like eating potato chips for me. I can make one quickly. I also really enjoy making them. Because they are fast? Maybe. Mostly because they are useful.
Sue gets a color wheel on the back to help her pick out fabric. I also remembered to put a label on the pouch.
Some time ago I made Carrie and Sue Kit Supply Totes. The Hackney pouches I made for them fit nicely into the Kit Supply Totes. I thought the I Spy would fit nicely in it as well.
I know it’s been a week or so since I posted about gifts, but we are back to it.
I posted last week about Sue’s I Spy pouch. One of the differences I made is that Carrie got a whole color wheel in the front while Sue’s was on the back. One of the reasons I like this fabric is because it means they always have a color wheel with them.
Carrie’s I Spy – back
I found some nice zipper pulls in my hardware bag that I added. They are apples, which have nothing to do with color wheels, Carrie or Sue, but here we are. Zipper pulls, aside from being cute really help to pull zippers open.
Last year when I went to visit my team in Basel, I took the women on the team some Cork I Spy pouches. One of the team sent me a picture of her pouch on a boat in Croatia.
The photo is amazing and I am thrilled that my pouch got to go somewhere I have never been.
I forgot to post this I Spy back in March. As I have said before, I love making these I Spy pouches. I like both the fabrics I used, but together they are a bit much. ;-).
It is still useful and is now keeping acrylic pattern templates together.
I still don’t really have a plan for 2024 in terms of sewing. I am just not sure what type of projects I want to focus on. I am starting to think that finishing a lot of UFOs was a bad idea. It left me sort of feeling like I don’t want to generate more UFOs.
Create * Make * Dream I Spy
I still want to sew, so I fell back on my potato chip project: the I Spy pouches. I have some templates coming from Sew Sweetness so I thought I would get ahead of the game and make the pouches in advance. The first one I finished was the Mermaid pouch AKA the Create * Make * Dream I Spy.
Create * Make * Dream I Spy – back
I used a different coneflower colorway than I did in the last I Spy. Surprisingly, I didn’t have as much of it as I thought, so the three pouches I made are sort of scrappy. This one looks relatively normal from the front, but I used a mermaid print for the back.
I bought this fabric on a whim at Cool Cottons in Portland last year, possibly for a bag for my sister. This is the first time I have used it, however. It is a fun fabric and I am glad I will have a little piece of it for myself. I still have enough left to make something for Lil Sissy.
I haven’t put any templates in yet, but it will be used for acrylic bag templates.
I started and finished another I Spy pouch very quickly last week. I needed another one for the Falabella templates, which I found when I was rummaging for the Piebald templates.
I went out of my way to use the zebra fabric and I had just enough left for the various lining pieces.
Zebra I Spy – back
As I have with all of the other I Spy pouches, I used the Anna Maria coneflower fabric again. I had some leftover from a previous project and was able to use it up. Some wrong cuts aren’t always useless even if they aren’t useful at the moment. 😉
Zebra I Spy – front, full
The templates fit nicely inside this medium version.
If you ever watch the TV show Ghosts, you will know Flower. I watched the beginning episode of the season and decided that some Tula owl fabric would be good for this latest I Spy.
Flowl I Spy with Vervain templates
I know I always say that I don’t want animals looking at me from my quilts, but these I Spy pouches seem to be immune. Anyway, the owls will most be covered by the Vervain templates that now live in this pouch.
I know I have said this before, but these pouches make me really happy.
I got some new templates this week, which means I needed a new I Spy pouch in which to store them.
I cut this pouch out after work on Monday and sewed it up during Craft Night. I only had to whip stitch the bottom closed and I could fill up the bag with my templates.
Big Poppy I Spy
I made an effort to make the window (lining) fabric look good and used some fabric I received for Christmas. Normally, the fabric isn’t seen, but I wanted to make this super pretty.
I am planning to make another pouch for the other set of templates. I could have made two at a time, but I thought I would have to adjust the size and I didn’t want to worry about that on Monday. I just wanted to sew.
