Make This: Box Pouch Tutorial

I love a good boxy pouch for all of my cosmetic or office supply storage needs, and I love that when you make your own you can customize it in any way.  This particular pouch was a birthday gift for one of our creative team members, Cami.  Most of the tutorials that I have seen leave you with raw seams on the inside, though, which isn’t my favorite finish.  For this tutorial, I will show you how I finished off the inside seams in a more satisfying way. Supplies You Will Need:
-1/2 yard outer fabric
-1/2 yard lining fabric
-14″ zipper
-Ribbon, twill tape, or another trim for decorative loops
-Optional: Bias tape for finishing inside seams

Cut out four 12″ x 14″ rectangles for the bag body, two from the outer fabric and two from the lining fabric.

Layer one outer rectangle, the zipper (face down), and one lining rectangle as pictured below. 

Clip or pin everything together.

Sew everything together with a zipper foot or the needle as close to the zipper as you can get it.

Once it’s sewn, press each side away from the zipper so the wrong sides of the fabrics are together.

Now, layer the other rectangles with the lining fabrics facing each other and the outer fabrics facing each other, as below.  Sew together along the other side of the zipper.

Iron fabrics away from the zipper, and open the zipper halfway for turning later on.

Line up the rectangles with the outer fabrics facing and the right sides of the lining fabrics showing.

Sew all the fabrics together along the bottom edge, opposite the zipper.

If you want to cover the raw edges of the fabric, cut a piece of bias tape just a tad longer than the fabric.  If you don’t mind the raw edges, skip this part.  

Pin or clip the bias on and sew it down close to the edge.  Don’t worry about the ends of the bias tape; they will be covered later.

This is how it will look:

Next, open up the bag and line up the fabric so the zipper and the opposite seam are on top of each other.  I clipped the ends of the zipper together to help keep them in place. 

If you want to add a little loop on the end of the bag, this is where you will put it in.  I put one on each end out of some fun twill tape.

Clip it all together and sew right down the side.  Stitch over the zipper part a couple of times, since it will handle the most stress. 

Repeat on the other side.

Next, we are going to box out the corners.  Fold each corner so that the end seam and the fold on the side line up with each other.

Then, clip or pin on each side 2″ down.  This should create a 4″ long line from clip to clip.  This is where you will sew to create the sides of the box.

Repeat on all four corners.

Trim each corner off, leaving a 1/4″ seam.

Now we will cover these raw edges with bias tape.  Start with the long side that goes across.  You will need to unpick a couple of stitches on each end, just until the seam pops up and you can put the bias tape all the way on.  Sew it on just like last time.

For each of the short sides, you will want to fold each end of the bias tape in to create a clean finish.

Repeat on the other side.  This is the part where I realized that the inside of the bag would make a really cool outside, am I right?  Next time, I think I will try it that way.  Or, you could have a reversible bag if you got the right kind of zipper.  That would be so fun!

Since that is the inside of the bag, though, turn it right side out and do your best to iron the seams flat.  It won’t totally work because of the bias tape, but it helps.

And that’s it!  Stand back and admire your handiwork.This bag ends up pretty decently sized, so you could fit plenty of whatever you want in it.  I think it’s the perfect size for a travel cosmetics bag.  Big enough for all your stuff, but not so huge you can’t fit it in your luggage.  It would also hold a sack lunch, art supplies, kids’ toys, pool/beach accessories, you name it!  Sew a few for you and a few for your friends, since these come together quick and don’t take much fabric.

-Audrey