zipper pouch

Final Project for Typography Class

| terriaw

The final project for my Typography class was one of my favorite graphic design projects to date.

Our mission was to make up a name for a font company (called a font house or font foundry), and design a logo.

Then we had to make up a name for a typeface that already exists, and create a direct mail marketing piece for designers in the field. I chose a font that had an Art Deco style, called Parisian, which I renamed BessieSmith Typeface. Bessie Smith was a famous African American blues and jazz singer in the 1920s.

As soon as our teacher introduced this project and showed us marketing examples for inspiration, my brain was flooded with ideas.

I chose to design what I am calling a Typeface Toolkit. Since the typeface I picked was Art Deco style, I wanted to keep the designs clean and simply by using a black and white color scheme with pops of red. I usually gravitate to bold colors, but I wanted this to look as real and professional as possible.

-Fabric swatches, which I designed in black and white versions, and then sewed into zipper pouches, with hangtags describing the contents.

-Postcard booklet. I designed postcards for each letter, and front and back covers, and then stitched the book together using a hemp stitch Japanese stab binding method. I made the postcards perforated so they would be usable.

I designed the postcards to show each letter of the alphabet in uppercase and lowercase, and to show the typeface in action with a positive word on the front and the definition on the back.

-Stencils of a couple letters.

This project was a lot of work to design and pull together, but I had a lot of fun doing this. I hope I get the chance to do more design work like this in my future.

Cupcakes For My Niece

| terriaw

One of my nieces is having her birthday tomorrow. I never know what to buy my nieces for gifts, so I thought it would be fun to make something for this 8-year-old. She loves sweets (who doesn’t), but she can’t have much chocolate these days due to chronic headaches. So I found just the right fabric in my stash to make something for her – a cupcake zipper pouch.

What young girl doesn’t like polka dots? Perfect print for the lining.

I made a small pink notebook to sneak in the inside pocket, and I found the coolest pens to go with this cupcake pouch – scented with cupcakes and strawberries.

Hope she likes her birthday treats and enjoys a fabulous birthday!

Stats: I used a 9-inch brown zipper so this pouch measures 9 inches wide by 6 inches tall, and has a little pocket inside measuring about 4 inches wide by about 3 inches tall.

Mojo Returns With Small Pieces

| terriaw

I received a few pieces of the most adorable scraps of fabric from my good sewing friend Cindy when we were lucky enough to meet in person at our retreat last summer.

I didn’t have much in each print so I didn’t really want to cut them up into smaller pieces only to figure out how to piece them back together into another combination.

Hence, these adorable zipper pouches, which are perfect for a small moleskin and drawing tools, or other goodies I like to hide in my zipper pouches (headphones, power cord for my phone in case the battery gets low while I’m away from home, external hard drive with my homework projects on it).

For the grey pouch with the bicycle print, I used a 9-inch zipper, so that one measures about 9 inches wide by 6 inches tall. For the minty green pouch with the mushroom print, I used a 7-inch zipper, so that one measures about 7 inches wide by 5.5 inches tall.

I ended up using different prints for the backs, and now I’m in love with that look.

Since I’m a little short on sewing time these days, these zipper pouches were just the ticket to bring back my creative mojo. Now I’ve got all sorts of new ideas swirling around on things I want to make. I love it when that happens.

Sewing With Hand Dyed Fabric

| terriaw

I’ve always wanted to hand dye fabric, but I never make the time to try it. I was thrilled when my friend Vicki shared some of her first hand-dyed fabric experiments with me.

I think these particular fabrics turned out cool as slipcovers for sketchbooks. I made the smaller version (5.5 inches tall by 3.5 inches wide) on the left for Vicki, and I listed the medium version (8.5 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide) on the right in my shop.

I had small squares of the peaches and purple fabrics so I cut them smaller, pieced them back together, and made a little zipper pouch to carry my drawing pencil and pen around with my sketchbook.

Actually, it fits more tools, including a couple more pens and my kneaded eraser.  Oh geez, I admit it, I love it so much, I carry it everywhere!

I’ve got a couple more pieces from Vicki that I’m anxious to cut up and piece back together into something else fun.

Definitely gotta get more of these fabrics here! There’s nothing better than combining newly discovered fabric and drawing to get me excited!