30 Minute Pouch Tutorial

These are super quick and easy and are perfect for teachers gifts, last minute gifts, or as a cute way to hold gift cards.  They will really only take 30 minutes!  Promise!  I timed myself! 

What you need:
5.5"x12.5" exterior fabric
5.5"x12.5" interior fabric
5.5"x12.5" batting or fusible fleece (I use batting because I have tons of batting scraps)
1 nylon zipper, any length so long as the tape is longer than 5.5"

Attach the batting or fusible fleece to the exterior fabric.  I use my spray basting glue, 505.  Layer the 5.5" side of the interior fabric right side up, the zipper right side up (raised teeth side), and the 5.5" side of the exterior/batting right side down.  

Pin.

Using your zipper foot, sew all layers together.

Open and press all layers away from the zipper teeth and top stitch.

Repeat for the other side.  Interior fabric is right side up, zipper right side up and exterior/batting right side down.

Here's another view of what it should look like when you are attaching the second side.

Pin and sew.  Then top stitch the newly sewn side.

Fold the pouch so the right sides of the exterior are touching.  You may need to smooth and shift the layers a bit since the interior fabric tends to get stuck at weird angles on the batting.

Close the zipper so that the zipper pull is in the middle of the pouch--NOT CLOSE TO EITHER END.

Fold the pouch so that one end has about 1.5" showing above the zipper and pin. This isn't an exact science.  I just eye balled it. 

Sew down the pinned edge using a 1/3" seam allowance.  Repeat for the other open side.

The reason I use 1/3" seam allowance is because I then trim the jagged edges and excess zipper tape down to 1/4".  Since the seams are exposed in this pouch, I like to make the ends as tidy as possible.

This is the pouch with the trimmed edges.

I then use a zig zag stitch to encase the raw edges and prevent fraying.

See?

Turn the pouch right side out through the opening left in the zipper and press out the corners.  As you can see, the pouch is large enough to carry most cell phones.

Ta-da!  quick and simple pouch!