Drawstring/Zipper Pouch

I’ll be the first to say it. I’m a lazy seamstress. I hate pressing, I often cut crooked. My seams aren’t always a perfect 1/4 or 5/8 inch. I just want to make stuff and have it come out cool. Having said that, here’s my tutorial on a drawstring and zipper pouch made from a combination of repurposed jeans and quilting cotton. If you can forgive me for cutting corners, I'll let you press and be as meticulous as you'd like.

Supplies:

Jeans

Main body- 18 x 12 inches

Quilting cotton

Zipper pocket- 15 1/2 x 7 inches

Lining- 18 x 12 inches

Drawstring casing (2)- 9 x 2 1/2

Notions

Thread

Zipper- 5+ inches (extra can be cut off)

1 yard or cording or ribbon

Process:

To put in the zipper pocket, we’re going to create a welt pocket, then sew in a zipper, and stitch up the fabric to create the pocket. If you’ve never made a welt pocket before, you might want to try it first on another piece of fabric…or at least look up complete directions. It’s kind of like a magic trick.

Lay the denim right side up. Lay the zipper pocket fabric right side down on the top left half of your denim. With a pencil, draw in a 4 3/4 x 3/4-inch rectangle about 2-3 inches from the top of your fabric. Using your sewing machine, stitch around this rectangle. Cut a line down the center on the rectangle and create reverse arrows at each end. Be careful to cut all the way to the corners, but DO NOT cut the thread. 

Now the magic happens. Shove all of the lining fabric through the opening you just cut. Pull it straight in the back until a clean open rectangle appears in the denim.

Pin your zipper behind the opening. Topstitch around the rectangle with denim side up, taking care to put the slider in the rectangle opening and NOT breaking your needle on the zipper stops. You may want to use a zipper foot, but a regular foot works just fine, too. Cut off excess zipper.

To create the body of the pocket, fold the lining fabric up so that the top edges match up (right sides together). Sew both sides. The top will be sewn in with the casing/lining sandwich.

So far, so good? Excellent.

Take the drawstring casings. Hem each side with a 1/8 to 1/4 hem. I just do a single fold so the cord slides more easily. Fold in half, wrong sides together. If you’re an ironer, go ahead and iron them folded in half. Find the middle of your denim piece on the long side and pin the casings in place at the top with a 1/4 inch gap at the middle with raw edges up. There should be enough room on the ends for a seam. Add to the top your lining fabric, right side down. Sew along this top edge.

Lift up the lining fabric. If you’re still ironing, press the seams open. Fold in half with right sides together, meeting the lining to the lining and denim to denim, matching the seam. Stitch. 

Here’s another slightly tricky part. Lay your bag flat, with the lining at the top and the denim at the bottom. Cut out 1 1/2 inch squares at each corner. You’re creating boxed corners. On the denim side, sew across the bottom. Open up the boxed corner, match seam to seam, and stitch. Repeat for other corner. On the lining side, sew about 1 inch on each side of the bottom, leaving the center open to turn the bag. Box the corners just like the denim side.

Turn bag right side out through bottom of lining side. Tuck lining inside the bag. Stitch opening shut.

Add cording through casing. Put one cord through clockwise, the other counterclockwise, each ending on opposite sides of the bag. Knot securely. You’re finished!

Universal Studios Hollywood Shows

Although Universal Studios Hollywood is probably best known for their tram lot tour followed by their rides, they also are currently offering 3 shows- Special Effects, Pet Actors, and Water World. We have now attended all three shows...some of them more than once.

Special Effects is a show that was housed in a theater that I remember seeing Conan the Barbarian in as a kid. Like all of the shows, you're sitting on an aluminum bench with someone knees in your back and your knees in someone else's back. The shows are about 20 minutes long, so not a huge problem. I'm just grateful they're not changing airline seats to Universal's seating charts. The Special Effects show takes you behind the scenes for the history and process of Hollywood's special effects including sound effects, green screen, fire, and fake equipment. They use audience members as part of their show, selected (I think) as people are entering the theater.

Pet Actors is cute. It's a show that you can see at most amusement parks with this kind of show- animals come out and do tricks with and without their trainers. Birds fly over your head to and from their trainers or boxes along the back wall. Still, you get to sit down in semi shade for about 20 minutes. The animals in the show come out on stage to meet the audience after the show.

Water World is a stunt show. A water stunt show. With big effects. (When they work.) It has a huge stadium for seating. There's a cue to line up before the show that is misted and mostly is partial shade. It looks like it holds a bazillion people. They will all fit in the stadium and there really isn't a bad seat in the house. Boats and jet skis are driven around the watery stage. Bad guy tries to conquer the world and get the girl. Lots of fake shooting and fire. You can guess the ending. It was a pretty bad movie, but a pretty good show. Unfortunately, the props seem to be a little persnickity, so every show is different. Water warning- you may get wet, especially if you sit in the soak zone. The preshow actors seem to like throwing water around.

So there's the show low-down. No one (as far as I know) goes the Universal Studios for the show, but they're a nice break during the day. Note: none of the theaters has a restroom, so go before you sit down.

Extra tip: Universal sells a refillable bucket of popcorn for $6. I highly recommend it if you're going to watch the shows, but fill it before you go in to each one. They don't sell drinks and snacks in the theaters.

Hogsmead

We've made a few visits to Universal Studios Hollywood in the past few months to visit Hogwarts and Hogsmead. Here are some notes for anyone wanting to visit...

The first thing the kids wanted to do was visit Ollivander's wand choosing ceremony. So we got there first thing, waited 30 minutes, and were ushered into a tiny room with some cool effects where a wand choose someone from another family. They haven't wanted to do that again and I'm grateful. It was cool to see once, but I don't think seeing it again is worth the wait. We've seen wait times of up to 90 minutes during our visits.

After the wand choosing ceremony, you (surprise) exit through the wand store. They have character wands and wooden wands. Some of them are interactive (with a gold label on them) and will create animations in some of the windows around town (look for bronze medallions in the street, you'll also get a map with the wand). My kids each picked on out and have brought it back for each of our trips. They're expensive, but the kids really love them. I have heard that you need to be careful not to scratch the tip or it'll stop working.

 

If you are able to skip the wand choosing ceremony, but would still like to purchase a wand, you have several option. The first is to simply go into Ollivander's. Sometimes there's a line just to get in the store, but they have the most information on each of the wands. Next is a wand cart at the back of Wizarding World, between the two rides. I've also seen them in the Harry Potter store on the lower lot and in the big store, in the Harry Potter section near the park's entrance.

Looking back, it would have been a better idea to visit Ollivander's, find the wands they wanted, ridden the rides (where you can't take anything on), and then purchased the wands at the cart show in the picture above. When you buy the wand it comes in a box and a handle bag. Beautiful presentation, but cumbersome to carry on rides.

Next on the list was butterbeer.

Butterbeer comes in cold and frozen. It also comes in a regular cup and in a souvenir stein. Cold and frozen are approximately the same price- $5. Our family is split down the middle with preference. The girls prefer cold, the boys prefer frozen. There are two places to buy this wizarding drink- near the front of Wizarding World and near the Three Broomsticks. Take a peek at both of them if lines are long at the first one you visit. Sometimes one has a long line, but the other one has no line at all.

While you're there, visit the bathroom. Tell Myrtle I said hello.