patty "The quilt lady": Boxy Pouch Tutorial

What you need to cut

Make the handle. Press the interfacing on. Press the handle in half longways. Fold each side in to the center. Topstitch and trim to 11 inches

Press interfacing onto the outside pouch pieces

lay one piece of the lining face up

lay the zipper zipper pull side up and with the zipper pull to the right

Layer on one outisde fabric piece

Line up the lining, zipper, and outside fabric at the right side and pin

Pin all three layers working your way right to left lining up the edges then sew. I use a zipper foot

Flip the pieces right side together. Lay down the other piece of lining and position the zipper to the left.

Layer the other outside piece on top of the zipper to sandwhich the zipper between the lining and the outside fabric

Pin the layers together at the left. I usually don't pin the rest of the layers since I will straighten and align the layers as I go. Sew the layers together

Flip wrong sides together, press the fabric back from the zipper, top stitch

Here you can see the lining is sticking out a bit at the side and bottom. Don't worry about the side, that will be resolved later, but go ahead and trim the bottom.

Layer the right sides together of the outside fabric so that all the bottoms line up. Sew these together with a half inch seam.

Trim off the seam edge just to clean it up then press the seam open

Stich down the seam. I use and fancy zig zag. You just want to make sure the seam is held down flat

Zip up the zipper and flip it back enough so you can match it up with the center of the bottom seam. Place a pin on either side of the zipper to hold everything in place.

Draw a sitching line. Make sure you will catch all the layers in the seam as the lining sometimes grows. You can see here the lining is longer so I need to draw my line further in

Now mark the corners. Put one 1 1/2 inch mark on the sewing line and the other at the edge of the fold. Trace the edge. Do this for both sides.

Stitch between the corner marks. I ususally go over it twice to make it nice and secure. Then you can cut the corners out and trim the excess seam allowance

Do the same thing to the other end, but make sure you leave the zipper part way open

Open the zipper all the way and start mitering the corners at the end where the handle doesn't go. I finger press the seam open, fold the edges together, use a scissors to make sure the fabric isn't tucked the wrong way at the folds, then stitch. I don't surge the edge but you can do what you want.