Tutorial Tuesd... Wednesday: Patchwork Pouch

Last week I gave you a little sneak peak at this pouch I made. Well, here is the tutorial, Patchwork Packet! It is on a Chinese sewing site called, Sew Lover. The links above will take you to the Google Translation page of it. Due to it being translated from Chinese, there were a few parts that were unclear or, I felt, were left out. On this tutorial I will clear up those parts and walk you through them!

Each one of my pictures has a number either in the top or bottom corner on the right hand side. My description of each picture will correspond to that number. I will also put the number that it corresponds to in the Chinese pattern. It'll look like this: 2.9: Where the first number is my picture number, and the second number (after the ".") is the pattern step number. Not all of their steps are numbered, but if you count their pictures, it lines up with those that are numbered. Some steps on the pattern I don't explain here. This is due to the Chinese pattern being self explainable I think. Let's get started! If you need another part of the Chinese pattern explained or a part I did explained better, let me know.

1: Here is the fabric I chose to use for my pouch. The floral is a linen from Joann's, and the other's are from my stash. You could easily use fat quarters for this project, but make sure you have enough for the binding.







2.3: I cut my squares to be 2 1/8 inches. It asked for 5.5 cm. I then arranged my squares a bit differently from what they showed, but I constructed it in the exact same way.








3.4: To cut the corners like the pattern shows, I used a tea cup to get the curve I wanted. I think next time I'll use a wider curved edge... this ended up being a bit too narrow for the binding to go along smoothly.

4: Here I traced around my top pattern onto the lining. This part was left out of the pattern, so I just improvised. I just lined my ruler up and used my water soluble marking pen, then cut it out.






5: Next I pinned my top onto my batting and hand quilted. This was also left out of the pattern.















6.5: Step 5... well I ended up needing to make a few adjustments, which you will see in the next two pictures as to why you need these adjustments. Where it shows to sew the lining is correct, but sew it on a 1/2 inch seam allowance and not on a scant 1/4 inch. It will fit much better now as a lining. Trim along the seam as well.

7.8: This is where I realized I needed to sew the seam on the lining at a 1/2 inch and not a 1/4 inch. I also realize that I needed to trim down the lining as well. Here you can see how far over the top it is.







8.8: I pinned in the lining before I trimmed it. Make sure to place your pins on the lining side and not the top side. This is because you will sew the lining in from the inside. Sorry you can't see my pins!







9.8: Here is after I have sewn in the lining and trimmed it to be flush with the top and batting.

10.8: This happens before my step 9! I accidently put it in the wrong order. Sorry! It's just me sewing in the lining.







11.14: I did not wrap my zipper in fabric at the ends like they did in the Chinese pattern. I ended up buying my zipper a bit too long, and since it's metal, you can't cut it to alter the length. I did sew it in by hand though. Should have used the back stitch like they showed, but somehow I missed that! Here I'm showing the first side. I simply lined up the edge of the zipper teeth with the top of the binding. I then sewed it how they showed along the bottom of the binding.









12.15: I'm sewing the other side of the zipper here. I needed to unzip it so that I was able to grab my needle when it was inside the pouch. Again, I lined up the bottom of the zipper teeth with the top of the binding, then sewed it in along the bottom of the binding.






All finished up! Here is the patchwork pouch completed. I might re-do my zipper though. Not quite as happy as I'd like to be with it. Both sides of the pouch are a little askew because I didn't sew the zipper in quite long enough. I also want to back stitch it in and not what I did. All in all though, I love the fabric I used and the design of it!

Did you make one!? Send me an email, and I will put it up on my blog!