Patchwork Pouch

I made this little pouch for my girl to store her Chinese word cards. The cardboard box that came with the cards came apart so I did a quick (or not so quick) sew to make her one so that she will not misplace the cards.

Instead of the usual one-fabric-sew-it-up thingy, I decided to do it differently this time to do a patchwork. I have alot of beautiful quilting cotton scraps that was left over from my previous sewing projects. It was a waste to throw them away so I just stored them and it gets piled up in no time.

I'll share a simple tutorial how I sew this patchwork pouch here.

Sew up all the stripes of scraps, try to find those with the same width so that it looks more or less consistent. But it is up to you. Sew up enough to make the pouch. I just eye ball the side. It's alright to sew more than less. Press the seams open.

Then, cut the pieced fabric into 2.5" long stripes, across the stripes that you have sewn. Cut up enough for the pouch. This will allow you to have different fabric print on the same stripe.

I use a earth tone long stripe of fabric to sandwich between the 2 colourful stripes for added interest. Sew up the side, with right side facing. This will make up the width of the pouch so cut the middle fabric to make up the required width. Press seams open.

Add another stripe below the earlier block to make up the required length. Top stitch on the stripes. Press seams open.

front view

back view

(Sorry, not photo here)
Next, for the inner layer, I get a floral cotton fabric, the same size as the pieced fabric and sew them together, right side facing. Sew all along the edges, leaving a 2" gap opening for turning over. Turn the bag right side out from the opening and press flat. Fold a 6" thin elastic band into half and insert both the raw edges into the opening and sew shut. Top stitch all the 4 sides and you have the fabric ready to sew the pouch.

Choose which directional print you like and with right side facing, fold up one short end to make the pouch pocket (make sure it is long enough to cover the cards). Sew up the 2 side seams, right side facing. You then pinch the bottom corner together and stitch across 1.5" from corner to create the base.  More instruction here. Make sure that the base is large enough to fit in the cards.  The portion above will be your flap of the pouch. I flip in the 2 sides to make it more tapered.

This is how the bag looks when it's close with the elastic band.

Simple and pretty. Good to use up those pretty fabric too!