Project Pouch Sewing Tutorial - FREE PATTERN

Welcome back to Country Cow Designs, I'm Jo and I make sewing patterns for bag makers. So in this video I'm going to show you how to make this project pouch. There's loads of ways you can customize this and make it specific to your needs. You could change the size quite easily, you can add extra pockets. I designed this because I got fed up of having sewing projects all around my sewing room, like bags cut out but not made yet, and I wanted to be able to store them somewhere and then hang them up without them taking up a lot of space. It also means that they're always in my line of sight so that way I don't forget to make those bags that I've got cut out. So if like me you've got a few bags that have been sat around for six months, this can be a great project for you. It's also good if you want to make one for perhaps kids or art enthusiasts. Here's an example of something you could do, you could quite easily add a second zip row and then you can just divide it down the center. This one I made for my niece so that she can store all of her art supplies and then a big pocket on the other side to store some paper. So rather than having paper drawings all around her room she can store them all in here. So you could do this single-sided as well, this is one that I use to store the acrylics for pattern pieces and on the back it's just plain, so I've just got a single-sided version there. So there is loads of ways that you can customize this and you could use different types of binding, you could use cork, water-resistant convert, canvas, quilting cotton. All you need for this project is some quilting cotton, clear vinyl, zips and some form of stabilizer. I'm going to be using fleece but foam would work just as well or Decoville light or anything like that. There is a link in the video description for this sheet where you can download this on our website. This just outlines the basic steps of what we're doing and also has the materials list and the cutting list. So this is going to make it a lot easier, just go ahead and download this from countrycowdesigns.com, it's free and then that way you can get all prepped and everything cut out for your project. This isn't designed to be worked on on its own though, you do need the video tutorial because I'm going to walk you through every step in the video tutorial. So I really want to see you guys get creative with this and come up with a few different designs, there's so many ways you can change it up, you can make it bigger, make it smaller, add more pockets. My only tip is going to be if you're going to add more pockets, make sure you do that side first and do the big pocket second because anything that you sew through this side because we're quilting is going to come through this side, so that is my tip if you're going to add extra pockets. So let's get started! The first thing you'll want to do is print out the project pouch notes. So this isn't a tutorial on here, you're definitely going to need to watch the video but this just kind of covers the steps and basics and all of your materials. So for your materials you're going to need either three fat quarters or three quarters of a yard or three quarters of a meter. So I'm going to use these two fat quarters that I've got from Tula Pink and then for the third one which is for the binding, I have gone ahead and got some binding and I've just pre-cut that. Then you're going to need your two zips and your two zip pulls to go with that. If you're using ready-made zips that's absolutely fine, I'm using continuous zip tape. You're also going to need your stabiliser, so I am using T970 which is a non-fusible fleece, you could use Decoville Light, you could use a foam if you wanted to. Pretty much any stabiliser will be fine for this, just whatever you've got around, it's just so that we can quilt onto it and then you should have your two pieces of clear vinyl. This clear vinyl has paper on it to make it easier to see when you're cutting it and sewing it, but it is actually a clear vinyl from ByAnnie's. So on your note sheet that you download it has the measurements for every piece, so you've got to cut two main panels from the fabric, your zip binding, zip tabs, grab handle and binding, all the measurements are in the sheet and I'll also put them in the video description. Two clear panels for your clear vinyl and one panel of stabiliser. So I've designed this so can work with fat quarters, so if you've got fat quarters lying around you can go ahead and use them. So I'll just set the rest aside. Now an American fat quarter is generally 18 inches tall by 22 inches wide, an English fat quarter is slightly larger because we use the metric system, but either will work just fine. So what you want to do first of all is cut your fat quarter so that it's still 18 inches high but it's only 16 inches wide. So for the two fat quarters I've gone ahead and cut out my 18 by 16 inches. So you're going to have some little bits of fabric left over which is great because we'll need them later. So I've got my two main panels and what we want to do is quilt them together with the stabiliser in between. So if you've got a fusible stabiliser you could fuse it to one of them first but I'm just going to place this between them and just try to line them up, they should all be the same size. If you've got a directional print make sure that both of your fabrics are facing in the same direction, mine seems to be a multi-directional print so I think it's fine. So we want to quilt this together, so that it doesn't move I'm going to add a few pins. You could use wonder clips around the side if you prefer or you could baste it with a basting spray or a little bit of double-sided tape or something depending what fabrics you're working with, but for this quilting cotton I do find that pins are just easiest. So now I want to mark my quilting lines. I'm going to do kind of a direct, a diagonal kind of line, I'm not too fussed about the exact orientation, I'm just going to go ahead and mark a line. Now you can use an erasable fabric pen if you like or something else. I'm going to try using this new tool that I've seen suggested to kind of mark the fabric with a crease, almost to score it. Okay so I'm going to quilt my line, then what I'm going to do is keep quilting with a two inch gap and then I'm going to double up my line, so I should have diagonal lines going across the whole lot. You could otherwise do like a diamond shape, you could do some free motion quilting, you could do whatever type of quilting you prefer. Okay so we've got our quilted panel, so you will generally when you're quilting get like a little bit of slippage and everything, that's fine, what we're going to do is we're going to neaten up the edges so that the whole panel is the same size and it's nice and square. So depending on the stabilizer that you've used and whether you've quilted it, your panel will be smaller, it always shrinks when you quilt and generally the thicker the stabilizer, so if you're using foam, the more it will shrink, whereas if you're using deck of your light, it will barely shrink at all. So what we need to do once you've quilted it and you've got your chosen stabilizer on, is check how wide your panel now is. So mine is now 15 and a half inches wide, so I'm going to trim both of my clear vinyl panels down so they're the same width. So once both of your clear panels are the same size as your main panel, what you now want to do is cut them for the zips. So for one of these, we're going to cut it one and a half inches from the top, so that's one and a half inches off the top of that vinyl panel, make sure that you keep them together. This one is going to be three inches off the top and that's because we don't want the zips to line up on the two different sides of the panel, so if we had them lining up perfectly, you'd end up with too much bulk in the seams. So we're taking three inches off the top of this one, from the leftovers of your fat quarters you should have enough to cut out your zip binding, which is two and a half inches by 16 inches, or if your panel's shrunk a little bit, just trim them down so they match the width of your panel. So what we want to do is attach them to the clear vinyl. Now I'm going to pull the paper away a little bit and I'm just going to trim it out of the way so that it's still there to sit on the bed of my machine, but so that I'm not going to sew through it. So grab one of your zip binding pieces and fold it wrong sides together, and then you're going to clip it to the top edge of the vinyl. So you're going to do the same thing with all of your vinyl pieces, you're going to clip the binding to one of the short edges. Make sure that you've got the same fabric attached to the two pieces of vinyl that go together, so this is the three inch that we cut off, so got three inch, 15 inch, and over here got a one and a half inch and a 16 and a half inch. So make sure that the same fabrics are on so that your panels are going to have matching binding. So before you go any further, just check that your binding is clipped to the edge that is the width of your panel. So this is your panel, and just make sure that everything is the same width there, that you've not attached it to the wrong side. So I've got my one and a half inch piece to go with this piece, and then my three inch piece goes with the slightly smaller piece. So what we're going to do is take this over to the sewing machine and sew through here with a three eighths of an inch seam allowance. I'm going to do that for all of the clear vinyls. So what we now need to do is wrap this binding around to the other side, so when you fold it over to the other side it should cover the stitch line. If you need to you can just kind of give it a good press with your fingers first, but it should fold over and cover it without too much difficulty. So I'm going to take that over to the sewing machine and top stitch this edge here with an eighth of an inch seam allowance. That will be going through both sides. I'm going to do the exact same thing with all of the other pieces. So I'm just wrapping it around this top edge here, and then sewing it in place. An awl is a great tool here for holding the binding in place, and if your presser foot is getting close to the clear vinyl you might find it's time to change over to a teflon or a non-stick presser foot. If you don't have one you can always put some scotch tape on the underneath of your standard presser foot and that usually works just as well. Okay so the next step is to cut our zips to the right width. So we want them to be one inch less than our panel, so if your panel has shrunk from quilting then you just want it to be one inch shorter. So my panel is now 15 and a half inches. I'm going to trim my zip to 14 and a half, and if you're using a ready-made zip you can just trim it the same way. If you're using a nylon continuous zip tape you can just kind of singe the ends and stop them from fraying. And then you can pop a zip pull on, just putting the curved edge on first, put it on a little bit on each side at a time and then put it on a flat surface, hold down and just pull it on. So I'll trim my second one to match. If when you're putting your zip on you end up with this kind of kink here, you can see how it's not straight. It just means that you haven't put your zip pull on straight, so you just need to take it off and try again. You should have enough of your fat quarters left just to make these zip tabs. So what we want to do is choose which zip's going on which side. I'm going to go with the orange on this one, and then we're going to place these zip tabs one on each end. You're going to line it up with this short end of the zip and clip it together. So the fabric is right side down, the zip is right side up, they are right sides together. We're going to sew it with three eighths of an inch seam allowance here. Then I'm going to fold it back and top stitch it in place. I'm using nylon zips which is why I can sew over the zip teeth. I'm going to do the same thing with both of my zips. Okay so we are now ready to attach our zips. So I'm just going to find the one that goes with these two pieces of vinyl and I'll peel off my vinyl paper. So you can see it's a little bit harder to see which is why you leave the paper on as long as we do. Now we want to center this and you can just go ahead and trim your zip tabs now if you like. You just want to make sure that you're trimming the same amount from each side so the zip is going to be centered and so it matches the panel. So this is the bottom of the panel, the bigger piece, and I want to attach it onto this zip. In order to do that I am going to use some double-sided tape. It's going to make my life a lot easier. So I'm just going to put it on the very bottom edge of the zip. When you're sewing with something like double-sided tape or any other adhesive I would recommend using a non-stick needle. The super universal needles are normally non-stick and so are the microtex needles normally. Okay so I'm going to place this onto the zip. You want to make sure that the gap here is equal all the way along so you've got like a nice neat finish. And then I'm going to sew through here with an eighth of an inch seam allowance to fix the zip in place. Okay so now I want to attach this bit to the top. So I'm just going to do it the same way and use some double-sided tape. Make sure everything's level and go ahead and stitch that in place. Okay so that panel is done. I'm just going to set that aside for a moment and grab my second zip and my remaining panel. I'm going to do the exact same thing. Now if you're bothered about it make sure that your zip is closing to the left. Some people are bothered about it closing to the left, some people aren't. It's just a bag making thing. But mine I'll have it closing to the left. This is the larger section for the bottom then the zip and then the smaller section for the top. So I'm going to attach this in exactly the same way as I did for the first panel. Okay so once both of your panels are done you just want to check that you haven't got any messy overhang here. You want it to be same width here. So I'm just going to neaten mine up a little bit. Okay and we're ready to put this on to the main panel. So if you have a directional print make sure that your print's the right way up now. You want the small piece of vinyl at the top so the zip is near the top. And it's going to be longer than the panel because of the shrinking from the quilting. So well unless you haven't quilted yours and then it won't. So we're going to match it up with the top edge and the sides. Just go ahead and clip those together. Okay so my top edge matches. Everything's clipped in place. My panel is longer at the end. My clear vinyl panel. So I'm just going to trim that down so that it matches. Now the reason we didn't cut it shorter in the first place is because I wanted to leave space for you to use different size zips, different size seam allowances and not end up with it conflicting. So that's why. Now you can either baste that in place or you can just flip it over and we'll attach the second panel at the same time. That's what I'm going to do. So I'm going to place this one right side up. This is the piece with the shorter piece at the top. And you can see now why. Because we didn't want these to overlap and it to get too bulky in the seam. So I'm just going to match that up with the top edge and clip it in place. So again you're going to have a little bit hanging off the bottom here. I'm just going to flip that over and trim it to match the rest. So I'm going to take this to the sewing machine. I'm going to baste all of the layers together with a long stitch length and using a quarter inch seam allowance. Well if you've survived this long without a teflon foot you won't anymore. Now is the time to definitely change over to a teflon presser foot. Or if you don't have one you could put scotch tape on the bottom of your presser foot or you could try using tissue paper and tearing it out afterwards. Okay so the next step is to fit the grab handle. And I've got my grab handle piece here. So the first thing I'm going to do is mark a line down the center. Okay so my sister Debbie she likes to have two grab handles, one on each side. I'm not such a fan, I just feel like it kind of ends up a bit bulky and I don't know, I like it with just one handle. But if you do want to do two you could do them in the same fabric as each side. Debbie believes that it hangs better when you've got two handles but I prefer one. So do it your way, you choose, you decide. But for the grab handle what we're going to do once we've got the line drawn is we're going to fold these long edges into the center line and give it a good press with the iron. So you're going to do that on both sides, then you're going to fold it again on the center line and give it a good press so it's four layers thick. Right once that's pressed just add a couple of clips to just hold it in place because we're just going to sew this together. So I'm going to sew both of these long edges with an eighth of an inch seam allowance. Okay so we're ready to fit the grab handle and you want to fit it four and a quarter inches in from the edge. So you can find your edge, it's one, two, three, four and a quarter inches. So just clip your grab handle in line with the edge and you want to make sure it's not twisted or anything so when it goes up it will sit neatly. I'm just going to baste that in place. Do you know what? Debbie wants two handles, this one's for her so I'm going to go ahead and add a second handle and I'm going to just match up with the first one. So you can see what I mean there's going to be some added bulk here with the second one so just make sure that your machine can handle that because we've got the binding to go on yet. Okay so I'm going to use my binding now. If you've cut your own binding what you want to do is cut it two and a half inches wide and then just like we did with the handle you fold the long edges into the centre and then you fold it again and then you have your binding. So this is actually quilting cotton but it's designed to be binding so that it has like writing on it and things like that. So what I like to do personally, I like to fold and press my binding and then I like to fit it all in one go like this. This is how I like to do it, it's a most people do it a different way. For me then when I get to the corners I can just get a nice neat crease on the corners, I can sew the whole thing in on one go. I prefer it this way. The usual way would be just like we did with the zip. So you would fold your binding like this so it's right side out, you would sew that on and then you'd wrap it around the seam and sew it again. So it is totally up to you which method you prefer, everybody has their own methods. If you've never done binding before try both and then you can make an informed decision. So just to change things up I'm going to go ahead and I'll do it this way for a change and yeah let's see how that goes. So I'm going to start at the bottom because I want my join to be at the bottom, least visible as possible. Now if you have a preferred side that you want to be like the focal side, like the front of the bag I suppose, that should be the other side okay because when we sew over that side it's generally going to be neater. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to sew this along and I'm going to stop three-eighths of an inch from the end. I'm going to mark my fabric so that I know exactly where to stop. So I'm going to stop there and then we'll deal with the corner and I'll show you how to miter the corner. Okay so to get a nice neat mitered corner what we want, you want this to continue to be folded and it's going up away from you, then we're going to pull it over here okay so you've now got this 45 degree angle here and then just pop your fingers on the edge and pull it back. So I'm just going to put a couple clips in place. You've now got this triangle here that stands upright. Okay so what we're going to do is we're going to sew this side. I'm just going to do the corner just to show you how to do each corner. So we're going to sew this side right up to the edge and backstitch and then I'll show you how the corner turns out. Okay so yours should look like this, it's got this triangle that sits up like this. Then what happens is when we clip this around in a minute, we're going to end up with like a pre-folded corner and the other side will just fold in the opposite direction and you'll have a nice neat corner here. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to sew that on to the rest of the bag doing all four corners in the same way. Okay so where your original starting point was, you are going to want to fold over this end piece, here we go, and then place the beginning section on top. So what you'll have is the raw edges will be hidden. Now mine is weirdly close to lining up with the writing, look at that. Okay so I'm just going to fold mine a tiny bit more so that it actually matches. I'm quite happy with that coincidence. Okay I'll try and perfect that. So I'm just going to sew this last section here and making sure that when we fold it over it's going to have the raw edge hidden under this fold. Okay so we're now ready to fold and wrap it around the seam so it's going on the other side. Now the other side is going to be the front and is generally going to be slightly neater, provided you've got it just right to cover the seams. So it should just cover over the seams as you do it. Now if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world, what you can do is trim this seam down just a tiny bit, don't do a lot, just a tiny bit and then it will wrap around easier and you'll be able to cover your seams nice and easy. So I'm going to wrap it around the entire side, make sure that your corners are sitting nice and neatly, they should have a neat fold that goes in the opposite direction to the corner on the other side. Clip it all the way around and then we're going to sew it the whole way around. Now that's all clipped around I'm going to sew this in place with about an eighth of an inch seam allowance or just less and I'm going to use an awl to make sure that it stays in place. And as we're going through this we'll be sewing both sides and generally you'll find that this will end up being the neater side which is why I recommended it as being your front. Again the grab handles will just be going down into the bag when you're sewing. Make sure you're using a thread that coordinates with your fabric, it will be much more forgiving. Other options for binding are using something like vinyl or cork, a raw edge material, and you can just cut that one inch wide and then wrap it around the seam. Okay so there it is, now you might be wanting to give my crazy binding idea a try because honestly it's a lot easier than that if you ask me. So what we're now going to do is pull the handles up and just give them another sew so that they stay up. So if you've just got one handle it's not going to be as bulky, it's going to be a little bit easier, but basically we want them to be going straight up out of the bag and we're going to sew them through here. I'm going to do two rows of stitching, one and eighth of an inch from this edge, one and eighth of an inch from that edge, just to make sure that the handles stay upright. Okay so that is all done. Now I've actually got some cool new rivets that I really want to fit so I'm going to put some through my handles. You absolutely don't need to do this but they're just quite cool and I want to give them a try. Okay so there you have it, that's the finished project pouch. This one has two handles as specified by Debbie, my sister. So there you go, nice simple quick project. I hope you've really enjoyed it. Coming up next on our channel will be our tutorial for that cute purse. This is the cute purse. So this is what we're going to be sewing next time. This will be coming out early January 2025 if you're watching later. It's just got these cute little pockets on the front. It's quite quick to sew and there's loads of ways you can customize it so I'm going to show you that in the tutorial but just watch out for that. You can join our mailing list on our website countrycowdesigns.com and then that way you'll get notified whenever new patterns come out and new video tutorials. So thanks for joining me and I'll see you soon. Bye!