Simple Pouch Tutorial

This is a simple pouch that has lots of great uses. I made several of these to go inside the tote bag from my previous post. I'm a big fan of fabric pouches to keep things separate in a suitcase or bag, especially when traveling. I made some slightly bigger pouches for myself to keep clean and dirty laundry separate in my suitcase. By the way, if you like to embroider, these pouches are a great way to show off simple designs. Your life will be much easier if you do all the embroidery before you start sewing!

Let's get started. I used a little scrap of fabric for this small bag (about 10" x 20"). The bag was fine for holding small things, like tubes of lotion or a few packs of playing cards. If you want a different size bag, figure out your finished dimensions, multiply one side by 2, and add seam allowances all around. That should give you plenty of fabric. 

Start by pressing down both short edges about .5" and sewing along the edge. This will be the top of the bag when you're done.

 

Now fold it in half (hamburger-style, not hotdog-style) and sew all the way up one edge, and almost to the top of the other edge. Stop about 2" from the top, as marked by the pin in this picture.

This gap that you left will be where you thread the cord through the top of the bag. Press the side seams open, then secure the gap you left by sewing all the way around the hole. If you skip this step, the raw fabric edge will end up poking out. Yuck!

Now fold the top edge down 1" toward the inside of the bag. You're making a tube for your cord. Press in place and sew close to the edge of the fabric. There are a lot of loose ends in the picture below, but they will all be inside the bag and out of sight. If you want your bag to look more professional, neaten the ends as you go by tying off the loose threads and finishing the edges. You can see the tube for the cord in the photo below.

I didn't have any cord and didn't want to buy any, but fortunately I had some shopping bags lying around, so I took the cords off of these for my pouches. 

Turn your pouch rightside out, press it flat, thread the cord through the tube, and you're done! I had a toggle so I attached that, but this pouch would be just fine without the toggle.

Thanks for reading!
Cate