A Box Pouch

I've been strolling around the Internet this past week and more and happened to come across several tutorials to make a box pouch. I loved the idea of something so simple to construct, yet in a shape that fabric generally doesn't acquire on it's own. I was tempted to try it since I was bogging down on the jacket I was sewing. The length in the body was too long and then I cut it just a tad too short. Grrrr! So, while I decided on the course of action to correct it, I decided to attempt one of these pouches myself. Here's the finished product:

I used the tutorial from this site to construct this pouch: http://modernquiltlove.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/perfect-box-pouch-tutorial/ The only changes I made were to interface both layers of fabric, a 9 inch zipper instead of a 12 inch zipper. I found the dimensions for the smaller zipper here: http://www.theplaidscottie.com/2010/11/box-pouch-tutorial.html.  In addition to the other changes I added a binding to the bottom seam so the inside didn't look nearly as unfinished as it would have otherwise.  The second link shows you how to sew it up so that the lining is completely finished. I look forward to following her tutorial in the future! I'm also going to try this out of leather. I have an idea of how to line it, but I'll let you know when and if it works out. Here's the inside with the binding.

As long as you don't look at the zipper too closely you don't see any of the unfinished edges. Here's some ideas to finish those edges: use a pinking shears or run all the edges through the serger before sewing. Just keep in mind your seam allowance. When I made this I didn't expect it to come out so well, so I had nothing in mind for it. After a bit of looking I decided that my serger tools and accessories would be perfect for it.

See? Perfect! Now I need to see if I can make one of these babies out of leather! And the best part? I made this one on a new machine. A new vintage machine! I'll tell you all about it in the next post.