Let me introduce you to my friend Chris.

I met Chris through my friend Joe. The three of us have spent many hours together as a trio! In addition to sharing a love of adventure, the three of us share a passion for taking photos — so there is plenty of photographic evidence of our adventures together.

Like endurance races…

Making friends with cats…

And finding any excuse to get crafty around the holidays (my pumpkin is supposed to be a scuba diver underwater, by the way… not my best work, LOL)

Needless to say, the three of us have spent plenty of time trying new things and exploring Central Florida together!

After I wrote about the boxy “man bag” I sewed for Joe’s birthday back in April, I knew the bar was set high-in-the-sky for Chris’s birthday. Chris often travels with Joe, so it would have made sense to sew the same bag for Chris. However, I wasn’t thrilled with this idea for a few reasons. One, the idea was no longer original. But more importantly, because of the unhelpful tutorial I started with for Joe’s bag, I had to make a lot of changes partway through the project and (in the words of Tim Gunn) — “make it work.”

With Joe’s bag, the end result was a good one, but only after lots of trials and tribulations. I knew if I ever made the man bag again, I’d need to make it with improvements right from the start. And I would have felt bad if Chris had a bag that was ‘new and improved,’ making Joe’s bag look sad and outdated. So. No boxy man bag for Chris. Not this year, at least!

I decided to stick with the travel theme, though, and turned to Pinterest for ideas. That’s when I stumbled across this tutorial for a Travel Cable Cozy from Live It. Love It. Make It.

WOW! As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to make one for Chris. Between iPhones, iPads, e-readers and numerous camera cords, batteries, media storage elements — there are so many accessories to keep organized and protected while traveling these days. I knew Chris would be able to put this to good use during his travels.

I set out to find some masculine fabric for Chris, but I was drawn to this Disney Villains fabric as soon as I found it. Chris loves Maleficent, the villain from Sleeping Beauty, and also has an appreciation for Disney villains as a whole. I paired it with some black lining fabric and black elastic to help bring the girly tone down a notch.

I did my best to “fussy-cut” the villains fabric (a necessary evil when using most licensed fabrics) to ensure Maleficent was showcased front and center on the zipper pouch.

One thing that I really love about this project is that the zipper pouch snaps on and off the exterior wrap – so Chris can choose to use the two pieces separately, depending on his needs.

As a whole, the project and tutorial were pretty easy to follow, just a little time consuming and “involved” considering how many notions involved — a zipper, snaps, two different types of elastic and a buckle closure. I’ve never made a project with so many unique notions involved.

Chris loved his gift, so I would consider this project a win! Last weekend I attended a little celebration for Chris, which was actually a combined par-tay with another friend, Morgan. Stay tuned to see what I made for Morgan… so many gifts on the project list this month, and it’s not even the holiday season yet. Eek!

PS – No joke, while I was wrapping up this post, I received a text message from Chris — he’s traveling this week and sent me photos of his cozy IN ACTION!