It’s another edition of SCK Tries where we try out a DIY to see how it works in real life and whether we’d recommend you give it a go. This time it’s a colourful Patchwork Party needlepoint pouch kit from Craft Club.
The Original DIY
My family did a craft kit Secret Santa at Christmas and my gift (from a wish list with a couple of options) was the Patchwork Party needlepoint pouch kit from Craft Club. I’ve always enjoyed needlepoint/tapestry and this was a really fun colourful design, plus you have a useable pouch at the end.
Kit Contents & Materials
The kit includes everything you need, all packaged inside a nice sturdy box. There’s the printed & pre-sewn pouch itself, plus pre-cut coloured yarn, needle, threader, zipper pull and printed instructions with pattern. All you need to add is a pair of scissors, and a needle minder is helpful too. There were a couple of minor issues – the pattern was printed upside down (you can see above that the bottom right part of the design is at the top left), and the numbers on the yarn organiser don’t match the numbers of the colour guide (01 is emerald green, which is in hole 04). Neither of these caused a problem but it was a little bit confusing.
Process
If you’ve never done needlepoint/tapestry, it’s super easy – basically cross stitch but the yarn and holes are bigger and you only do half of the stitch. That makes it really fast as well. Usually they go from bottom left to top right but, because I started in the top left corner, I went the other way. It really doesn’t matter though. I knew from past tapestry kits that you need to choose between following the paper pattern or the fabric pattern as they will not match exactly. If you need everything to line up and be symmetrical (*raises hand*), follow the paper pattern and count stitches. If you’re more relaxed (or hate counting), you can stitch what you see on the fabric and improvise where necessary.
The design uses repeats and similar motifs so even with counting stitches, you don’t have to be laser-focused and can relax a bit. There were a few bits where I had to unpick or leave a mistake but mostly it all went very smoothly. The yarn is really nice quality and less fluffy than tapestry wool. I still appreciated the needle threader, as it does fray a bit at the ends. I also really liked that the zip on the pouch runs around 3 sides so you can open it flat for easier access. Getting your needle into the edges and corners was still sometimes tricky and annoying but knowing the alternative is sewing the pouch together yourself afterwards helps a lot!
You can see what I mean about the pattern not matching – by the final sections, it was about 3 stitches out! This is totally normal and due to printing on fabric with holes in it. I ended up adding extra lines of background colour stitches around the central motifs so they’d still look balanced but I could also just have added the extra at the end.
The End Result
It turned out pretty much perfect! The design is so colourful and the texture is really nice too. Being able to store the pattern, supplies and tools inside while working on it made it easy to pick up when I had a bit of spare time. I’ll definitely be using it, probably as a project pouch since the full zip gives you great access. I’ll swap out the zipper pull for something more kawaii though.
I was careful to weave in my ends whenever possible and not jump colours too far but I still might cover the inside with a piece of felt to stop anything catching. I really enjoyed making it and was a bit sad when it was over, so I’d definitely buy another Craft Club kit. I think it’s easy enough for anyone to try, but especially if you’re already familiar with cross stitch or embroidery. There was also so much thread left over that I could probably stitch the whole design again, or use it for another project.
Craft Club ships worldwide from Australia and they have lots more cute needlepoint pouch kits available, as well as rugs, coasters, cushions and bags using latch hook, weaving and other yarn techniques. Nicolette got one of their woven bag kits for her gift so look out for that when she finishes it.
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