Pencil Pouch Tutorial

Today’s Back 2 School project is a lined zippered pencil pouch that fits inside of a three-ring binder.

 

Materials needed:

• Outer fabric
• Lining fabric
• Interfacing
• 7” zipper
• Grommets or eyelets
• Stitch Witchery

You’ll need to cut two pieces of outer fabric, two of lining and two of interfacing at 9”W x 11”L.


Iron on your interfacing to the wrong side of the outer fabrics.


I really hope I don’t confuse you with this part.  If you are working this tutorial while you read, I suggest reading through first.  I’ve included an untouched photo above and a photo with notes below.  To make a slot for the zipper, draw a line on the back side of your outer fabric 2” from the top and 2” in from each side.  Then draw perpendicular lines on each end measuring 1/2”.  Now you will cut what you just drew but look closely at the picture below.  You don’t want to cut all the way to the end of the line.  You need to cut almost to the end but then cut so that you have triangle shapes at both ends.  Don’t cut those perpendicular lines.



After that’s cut, open the slit and carefully press the fabric back.  Your fingers may hate you at this point.  Remember, you are still working on the wrong side of the fabric.  Try to press this opening into a straight rectangle.  It’s okay if it looks more like an oval shape but if you are a perfectionist, it’s a rectangle that we’re going for.


See?  This is how it will look with the zipper in.


Lay the fabric with your newly cut slit over one of the lining pieces.  Trace the slit window onto the lining and cut it out.  We’re not too worried about the raw edges of the lining.  I’ll hook you up with some Stitch Witchery to fix that.


Now go ahead and sew that zipper onto the outer fabric.  I like the double stitch look for this project, so I stitched real close to the edge and then lined up the edge of my presser foot with the edge of the fabric for my second stitch to achieve this look.  Be sure to pivot at each corner with your needle in the fabric and feel free to move the zipper head back and forth in order to maneuver around it.


Once you have the zipper sewn in, you can now flip the fabric face down and place the lining on top matching up edges and the window.  Use the Stitch Witchery to glue all four edges of the window to the outer fabric to discourage fraying and to keep it attached.


Now it’s time to sew the pouch together.  Layer your fabrics like this: lining face down, outer fabric face up, outer fabric face down, and lining face up.


Match up all edges and pin at the corners.  Make sure your zipper is open before you sew all the sides.  For this project, instead of my usual 1/2” seam allowance, I am using the edge of my presser foot as a guide because we are going to hide the raw edges later and we want the seam allowance to be small.  Be sure to clip your corners!


You can now flip the pouch right side out through the zipper opening.  Give it a good press with your iron.  Top stitch around all four sides as close to the edge as you are comfortable.  Then…


on the side opposite of the zipper, sew 1” from the edge down that side….

and the remaining three sides you can use the presser foot edge as a guide to finish the rest of that double stitch.  This is going to hide those raw edges we left inside the pouch.  The part where we left a 1” space is where we will place the grommets.


On the 1” space, find the middle and mark with a pin.  Then on either side of that pin, mark 4 1/4” with two more pins.  Mark your spots with a marker or pen and place your grommets or eyelets on those marks.


That finishes the pencil pouch.  If you did it correctly, it should fit perfectly into a three-ring binder and look darn good too!
Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on upcoming Back 2 School Series posts!