Share The Love: Sweet Verbena's DIY Pencil Pouch Tutorial

You know sometimes you come across a blog that's so good you read it all the way back to the very first post, follow it and then add it to your bookmarks bar just so you can keep clicking back to look at it in all it's bloggy glory...? That happened to me when I found the blog Sweet Verbena and when you find a gem, you gots' ta' share the loooooove!

So... firstly, meet my arch nemesis. All will become clear I promise.

This baby has scared the life out of me. I have dreamed of sitting down and being about to sew things but the thought has seemed too daunting. I also find it insanely frustrating if I have to read an instruction manual and can't just use something on my own. Basically a bad combination of pig headedness and being a bit of a sewing wimp.

I did actually get a B in GCSE textiles, but it certainly wasn't for my practical work. We had to make a William Morris inspired waistcoat that my friend Elizabeth dubbed 'The Pork Chop' as the shape of the 2 front panels was nothing remotely waistcoatesque! If I remember rightly, there was one boy in our textiles class and the pair of us used to make him sew things for us! Haha!

Anyway, I decided I wanted to learn to use my sewing machine and stop being scared of it and then, like a gift from the Gods, I happened upon the beautiful Katy's blog Sweet Verbena.

She has a whole host of sewing tutorials on her blog as well as some other crafty bits and bobs and I love love LOVE it! I decided to bite the bullet and follow her tutorial for a DIY pencil pouch which incorporated my fear of sewing straight lines and adding a zip! Yep, I was going in!

Katy's tutorials are SO straight forward and easy to understand, I had absolutely no problems making the pouch, the hardest thing was working out what my zipper foot attachment looked like! Believe me, if I can make this without throwing the sewing machine out the window, then Katy has given hope to all us sewing novices! To try out the tutorial yourself, click the picture below! You can also follow Katy on Twitter and Facebook.