Hi everyone! This is Brandi from the PTP team and I have a cool new hack for you today!

The Snail Hunters pattern is one of my favorite PTP patterns! It is so versatile and I love that I can use the same pattern for both my son and daughter. As great as this pattern is, today I will show you an easy hack to make them even better! I will be showing you how to do some cool color blocked, wide stripes that you can add to one, or both, legs.

This was my first experience with hacking a pattern. I must admit, at first, I was a little intimidated by the thought of it! I really shouldn't have been because it turned out to be so quick and easy!! The best part?? My son loves them!

Items needed:

-Snail Hunters pattern. If you don't already own the pattern, you can purchase it here.
-Fabric. The number of different fabrics needed will depend on how many different stripes wanted. I used two.
-paper scissors
-fabric scissors
-tape
-ruler
-pencil
-and, of course, a sewing machine/serger and matching thread

Start by printing and taping together the pattern. I printed two copies of the front, back and side panel pieces. One for the regular leg and one for the new color blocked leg. One copy will work, but make sure to cut fabric for the regular leg first, because the pieces will need to be cut and taped together for the other leg.)
Note: If doing the faux fly, be sure to do this on the non color blocked side.

Take one set of pattern pieces and lay them out with the front piece and the side panel piece right sides UP. The back piece will be placed right
side DOWN. This is done so that it will make a complete leg piece that will be cut out as one piece. Now, cut the seam allowance (3/8") from the
straight edge of each of the 3 pattern pieces.

Once this is done, tape the 3 pieces together, making sure that the front
and side panel pieces are right side up and the back piece is right side down.

Next, the fabric for the color blocked leg will be cut out and sewn together. I measured my new pattern piece to figure out the size of my finished piece of fabric. The length of your strips will be determined by how many stripes are wanted. I chose to do four stripes. Two of each color. Make sure to add seam allowance (3/8") to the top and bottom of each strip. Also, the finished piece of fabric should be larger than the pattern piece. After the strips are cut, sew them together and top stitch each seam. This is how the fabric will look.

Once sewn together, cut out the pattern piece for the color blocked leg. This leg is done!!

For the second leg, the pattern pieces will be laid out opposite of how they were for the first leg. This means that if the piece was right side up, it will now be placed right side DOWN and vice versa.

The second leg and the rest of the Snail Hunters can now be finished according to the original instructions!

Here are my son's new Snail Hunters in action...

Good Day All!

I am back again with a quick tutorial for making a triangle zippered pouch. These are great little sews that use up tons of scrap and are fairly practical. You can change the sizing of these to be as large or as small as you would like, plus they make a stellar hostess gifts; or in my case dice bags for my sons. If you have any dice game players in your family, this has been on one of my son’s lists for about 6 months, and since they take a few minutes to sew each of his Dungeons and Dragons buddies will be getting one with a new set of dice 😊. I apologize now that I do not have my son’s D&D dice (he refuses to let anyone else touch his) so I used his Cube Quest game for photo purposes and was promptly told I needed to now make sets for those games- lol.

So lets get started!

Supplies: For this tutorial I will be making approximately a 4 inch tall triangle pouch

2 pieces of 5x10 fabric, one will be your lining and one your outer.

2 Pieces of fusible interfacing (I had to piece mine together because I was running low. I used a midweight one but you can use the fleece or something heavier if you prefer the pouch to be stiffer)

1-7 inch zipper for the size that I am making, if you choose to resize this then you will want to make sure that your zipper length is longer than what is recommended here. I recommend using a vinyl over metal zipper

2-3 inch piece of ribbon (optional)

Sewing machine

Pins or clips

Zipper foot (optional)

******3/8 inch seam allowance is what is used throughout the tutorial********

Step 1 we are going to make sure we have the 2 pieces of fabric cut down to the 5x10 inch size then go ahead and interface both your lining and your outer. I opted for the mid weight for both pieces, if I were sizing this up, I would probably recommend at least one side fused with either heavier weight interfacing or fusible fleece to give it a shape that actually stands up well.

Next you are going to sandwich your zipper in between your outer fabric and your lining, with the fabrics right side together. You want to make sure if you are using directional fabrics as I did, that your zipper pull is at the top and face down on your outer fabric. This is where a zipper foot will come in handy, you want to sew as close to that zipper as you can get without actually sewing over the teeth of the zipper.

You will now flip the outer and lining over right side and topstitch along the edge you have just sewn (where my finger is pointing).

Now we are going to sew the other side. Place the outer fabric right side down on the zipper edge, you are going to be forming a loop with the outer fabric at this point since it will now be sewn on one side and pinned to the other side of the zipper.

You are going to do the same thing with the lining. After you pin it down, it should look like the photos below. Now you will sew this the same way that you did the other side, with your zipper foot getting as close as you can to the zipper.

Reach in between the 2 fabrics and unzip the zipper and turn your fabrics so your lining is on the inside and your outer fabric is right side out. We are now going to topstitch the other side of the zipper like we did earlier. Again using that zipper foot we are going to pull the fabric as tight as we can and sew down along the straightened edge making sure to stay clear of the actual zipper teeth.

This point you should have a tube shape with your zipper on top, you are going to turn your fabric so the lining is facing the outside and rezip the pouch. We are now going to sew the parts that will make the pouch a triangle. You will start with the zipper in the middle of the pouch and flattening the pouch so we can sew the bottom shut. Pin along the edge without the zipper pull.

You will now sew along this edge. Just a brief note, if you sew this edge and leave it like this it will have an unfinished edge. I recommend using pinking shears, a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine or serger to finish the seams.

We are going to unzip the zipper again and this time fold the pouch so that the zipper is folded in half and flatten the pouch again and pin. If you are adding a ribbon for a small loop you will add it now about ¼ of an inch from the zipper edge.

You will now sew this edge, finishing it with your preferred method you used earlier. Turn your little pouch right side out and you are all finished and ready to put what you would like in your little pouch!

Come show us in the group if you made any of these for stocking stuffers, teachers gifts or just because you thought they were cute!          

If you are new to sewing and would like to learn more about what starter machine to purchase, check out this blog for some great information.