Transcription
This time I'm going to show you how to make this handy little pouch, which I think is going to be ideal for me when I'm walking the dog because it has a zip pocket in the top that I can keep my phone or any loose change in and it has a pocket on the front that fastens with a popper that I can keep things like my poo bags and treats and things like that.
But it also makes a great size of little bag for a child. Obviously, you may need to make the strap a little bit shorter for that. Strap length is your choice. I'll explain that later on, but it could be a cross body bag, an over shoulder bag or a child's bag, that's up to you.
So, I have made a few of these. This one I didn't put the popper on the front of this one. It's just got the pocket, but I actually used the selvage of some of the fabric as a trim because I just thought that was such a nice finish. And this one is slightly larger because I wanted to incorporate all of the checks. So, it's made it a little bit longer than the other two bags, but it just goes to show how you could adapt them. You could make it wider, you could make it longer once you understand the technique and how easy it actually is to make.
So, I'm going to put all of the materials that you need and the sizes that you need to cut in the description box underneath the video. You may have to click on see more. So, go have a look at your measurements, go choose your fabric and let's get sewing.
So, I've got my outer pieces, my lining pieces, my two pocket pieces and my strap and my popper and tool and of course my zip as well. Now, on the wrong side of the outer pieces, not including the pocket, I've fused H640 fusible fleece and this gives the bag a little bit of substance, but it's not too stiff, which is exactly what we want.
So, the first thing we're going to do is to make up the strap. And as you can see, I've already pressed this. So, long sides to the center. And then in half again. And I'm just going to stitch down one side too to hold that together. And of course you can make the strap as long or as short as you like. You could put some hardware on there if you wish. But I suggest to measure the length of the strap, you're just going to throw a tape measure over your shoulder and measure how long you want it to be. So maybe a little bit longer if you're going to make it a cross body than just over one shoulder. And of course if you're making this for a child, then that's going to be a little bit shorter still. We'll just put that to one side for now and take the pocket pieces.
Now you'll notice that the lining from the pocket is longer than the lining at the the outer and that's deliberate because we're going to see a little bit of that lining fabric over the top. You'll see what I mean in just a second. So just going to sew together across the top side. I'm just making sure actually my fabric's directional that I've got it the right way around. And then we'll stitch straight across the top. And I'm using a quarter of an inch or 6 mm seam allowance. So I want to take this back and I'm just bringing up my ironing press and give that a quick press. And then when I fold the outer fabric over, the lining just curls around the uh the seam allowance at the top. Let's give that a press. And then I'm just going to top stitch just underneath the seam. Now, I find it easier not to stitch in the ditch as in so directly over the seam because if your stitches are the tiniest little bit wobbly, it really stands out. You have to be very accurate to to stitch in the ditch. Whereas sewing just underneath the seam or just on top if you wanted to sew on that border, I think you're going to find that a lot easier to do.
Now, we're going to fit the popper. So, if you haven't seen these before you have two spiky bits. One pokes out and one pokes in. I'll need to fold this in half to find the center. So, I'll give that a crease. And then I'm going to push one spike quite close to the top, so about just over a centimeter or an inch and push that spike all the way through the fabric. You may need to um give that a little bit of a hand if you've um if you can't get the spike through. These are actually very strong and very sharp. Um but if you've got a quick unpick, you could maybe push that through. And then we'll take one half of the opposite side. It doesn't matter which one. And place that over the top of the spike. And then take your tool. Slip that over the edge of the fabric so that one half the bottom half is sitting in the cup on the bottom of the tool. And give it a squish. And that's it. That is well and truly fixed on and it's going to be really firm.
Then we'll take the front of the bag and place this over the top. Now, I know you can't see too well on this fabric cuz it's very heavily fastened, but I'm going to take my marking tool and just draw a dot where the second half is going to be. And in fact, that is so dark, I'm going to take my quick and pick and take it straight through the fabric cuz I'm actually going to put the popper in from this side. So, I've got a hole there. I've gone straight through the fleece. So, take the second half of the snap, push that through the hole. Then, just like before, pop the second half on. Maneuver the tool till the popper is sitting inside it and give it a squish. And you don't actually need to press that very hard. And that's again is very secure. So, now when I put the pocket on, those two pieces, you can hear that click, will fasten up perfectly. So, with the popper fastened, there you go. Look. So, that's well and truly popped in place. I'll just stick a pin in there. I'm just going to sew around the edge to hold that in place, really close to the edge. So, in other words, within the seam allowance. So, you can lengthen your stitch a little bit here and sew. So, this is purely to hold all the layers together for when we construct the rest of the bag.
So, next step, we'll put the handles on or the strap on. So, this is going to be facing down. Just over an inch or about 2 and 1/2 cm from the edge. Let's just snip that off. And I'll put a clip in there actually to hold it in place. And then just making sure that this strap isn't twisted, bring the second end back and pop that in at the same distance from the edge as this one. And again, I'll clip that in place. And then I'm just going to sew across the tops of these to hold it in place.
And then we'll put in the zip. So, zip facing down, so the slider bit here is facing downwards over the top of the bag. Line up the edges together and I'm going to sew halfway down the zip tape. I'm going to move my needle over to the left-hand side. So, I don't need to put the zipper foot on. So, that takes the needle straight down the center of the zip tape. Just make sure that strap's out of the way. Then take one of the lining pieces and we'll pop this onto the opposite side. So, the zip's trapped in the middle of the two pieces. And I like to sew from the side where I can see the stitches. So, line up the edges of the fabric here and sew straight over the same stitch line. Just noticed I've still got my pin in there. Let's just take that out.
Then, we'll do the same with the opposite side of the bag. So, your fabric piece right sides together. Sew from the zip side so you can see where you're going. So, line up the edges of the top of the zip and the sides of the fabric and sew straight down here. If you're not too confident on sewing without pins, that's absolutely fine. Um you may find it easier to actually sew with um a glue stick to hold everything in place if you have one. And then, the second lining piece goes over here and we're going to sew along that same stitch line. So, let's sew from this side. Line up the tops. Line up the side. And sew across the same stitch line. Or as close as you can get get to it.
Then, let's bring the ironing pad up again and I'm going to open this out. Strap out of the way again. And just pull the lining away from the zip and press. And the same on this side. So, pull the outer fabric away from the zip and press with the handle up. And then, with whoops with the handle up I'm going to top stitch across each side here. So I can put the needle back to the center position again. And just so. And this not just looks nice, but it helps the fabric to stay away from the zip. This time with a zip uh sorry with a strap upwards. And again just top stitch across the top of the fold.
Now with the zip open I'm just going to sew across the ends of the zip here before I cut it off just to stop that coming under and or opening up when I'm sewing the bag together. So you can do that by hand if you prefer. It does It does help. Then I can snip off the ends of the zip on both sides. Now it is important at this stage that your zip is open. Don't take the slider all the way off the end of the um um the zip because that can happen.
Okay, now I'm going to take my strap. And I'm actually going to put it inside the pocket cuz I don't want it to get caught up in the seam. If you were watching me do the live version of this, you'll see how easy it is to get it caught in the seam. Right. And then with right sides together, let's put the outer pieces together and the lining pieces together. And I'm going to sew all the way around, but leave a turning up in one side. And when it comes to the zip, push it towards the lining side. The top of this zip is going to disappear into the side of the bag. I know you can put tabs in there if you wanted to, but this is going to disappear into the side. Um so it's important that the it's poked in towards the lining side cuz otherwise it's going to look a a little bit odd. So again, if you wanted to pin that, then that would be absolutely fine. I'm not going to on this one. I'm just going to sew.
Let's snip off the corners. That'll make it a little less bulky when I turn this the right side out. This is why it's it was important to leave the zip open because now I can turn the whole bag through. There we go. That may look as though it's gone inside out, but literally I'm just going to flip the pocket over. And then push the corners out. So I'll use a turning tool. You find it easier to to push the corners out whilst um you've still got the hole in the side here. So just push that inside. Whatever kind of turning tool you have, it could be a chopstick or I like to use a knitting needle. Sometimes I just push out the points as best you can. They They be exactly square because we've got the H640 or fusible fleece in there, so they will be slightly rounded.
Then we'll need to sew the turning up closed. So, pop your fingers inside. Pull those away from each other. And then just sew straight across the edge. You could do that by hand if you wanted it to be completely invisible. And let's push the lining inside the bag. And just push out the corners here. Then I think one final press. And we're ready to go. Careful when you're pressing over the popper. May not like too much heat.
So, there's another little bag finished. So, I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. I hope you can see how useful and how quick this is to make as well. So, perfect if you need a quick gift for somebody. Um or if you're making things to sell, of course, too. I should see you again next time. Bye-bye.