Box Pouch Tutorial

Here is another little tutorial for you!! These bags are a lot of fun to make and look very effective. Perfect for travel bags, make up pouches and pretty much whatever you want...

I've used some Tortoise print fabric by Dashwood Studios, purchased from PlushAddict, along with some laminated cotton for the interior - this means the inside is plastic and wipeable, handy for a make up bag.

You will need:

• 1 zip (to match length of your fabric)
• Fusible interfacing
• Outer Fabric + Lining Fabric
• Pins
• Ruler

Step 1
Cut out all your pieces. These pieces were about 18cm x 24cm. I added fusible interfacing to the back of my outer fabric to make it thicker and sturdier - it will help the bag keeps its nice boxy shape once finished.

Step 2
You now need to attach your fabric to the zip. I find the easiest way to do this - and for a nice clean seam with no stitching showing - is to lay an outer fabric piece over a lining piece (right sides of the fabric together) and trap the zip between the two layers. Make sure you are attaching the fabric to the top edge of the zip.

Step 3
Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine, sew the fabric to zip where you have pinned.

Once your fabric is attached, if you bend back the pieces you'll see your nice neat zip inserted! Press the fabric firmly back and run a finger (or iron - careful not to melt anything though) on the crease so it stays put.

Step 4
Repeat on the other side!

 

Lining side

Outer side

Bend these pieces back and you will now see all your pieces where they should be (hopefully - if not grab that unpicker and a glass of wine and start again).

Step 5

Now fold your pieces so that the lining fabric touches each other, right sides facing together, and the outer side touches each other, right sides together. Pin and sew the seams so that you form 2 loops with the zip in the centre.

Step 6

Here's the weird bit that is difficult to photograph. Turn the lining loop inside out - so that the print is facing outwards and you can see it. As you turn it inside out, it will take the outer fabric inside of it so it forms a little roll. You want to to look like this:

Step 7

Once you have your roll, place the zip over the bottom seam and line it up. Squash the layers of fabric together to it lays flat and pin across the open ends.

Step 8

Sew those bad boys closed.

Now if you aren't using an overlocker, your seams will have raw edges. You can tidy these up by either using pinking shears and just giving it a nice zigzag edged; or use the zigzag stitch on your machine to create a 'fake' overlocked look and encase the frayed edges; or use bias binding on all raw edges (time consuming but very pretty).

Step 9
Form some corners. Fluff out the bag a bit and grab the corners. Take each corner in turn and measure equally for each one so you get triangles. The bigger the triangle corner, the deeper your box pouch will be. Pin your triangle corners and sew down these lines.

For non-overlocked bags you will need to snip off the excess fabric once its sewn

 Step 10
Flip it the right way round and you've got yourself a bag!

I hope you have found this tutorial useful - if anyone has a go at making it let me know! Would love to see some more of these :-)

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