Sleeve Phone Pouch Tutorial

This is a sleeve phone pouch with a snug fit, when you pull the strip the phone will come out, when you push the phone in, the strip goes down, like magic! Instructions to adapt to any phone size and also a snap
closure included.

 Materials
• 2 or 3 different FQ of cotton fabric : 1 or 2 for exterior and another for lining
• Scrap piece of cork fabric, leather, Vinyl or Kraft-Tex.
• Less than 1/4 yd of medium weight fusible interfacing - Pellon SF101 Shape-Flex | Vilene G700
• Less than 1/4 yd of fleece - Vilene H630 | Pellon 987F fusible fleece

Printing
When printing set scaling to “none” or “100%” in your printer properties. A 1” (2.5 cm) test square is
included with the pattern pieces

Sewing basics
Seam Allowance (SA) : Seam allowance is 1/4” (7 mm) unless otherwise specified. The SA is included in the pattern pieces.
RS : Right Side. All pieces are sewn RS together, unless otherwise indicated.
WS : Wrong Side.
Backstitch : You should backstitch always at the beginning and end of each seam, except when indicated.
Basting Stitch : Sewing using a longer stitch length.
Topstitch : Sewing using a longer stitch length.

Preparation
1) Making the pattern pieces for your phone size
The pattern pieces provided are made for a 5” phone, but using the following instructions, it is possible
to adapt to any size phone, just do a bit of simple math and that’s it!
I will exemplify, I usually make these calculations :
H = Height W = Width D = Depth
H of pattern piece = phone H + D + 1” (2,5 cm)
W of pattern piece = phone W + D + 1” (2,5 cm)
Math done in centimeters - for inches you should follow the
exact same method.
So we have on my example a 5” phone with these dimensions :
14,32 (H) x 7,22 (W) x 0,87 (D) cm
H of pattern piece = 14,32 + 0,87 + 2,5 cm = 17,69 cm
W of pattern piece = 7,22 + 0,87 + 2,5 cm = 10,59 cm
If the result of the sum is an odd number round it down to the nearest half or quarter inch / cm.
We will round it down in this case to 17,5 (H) x 10,5 (W) cm, the dimension of you pattern piece.
You can draw your own pattern or using the pattern piece provided, just add to or trim to the pattern
piece so it becomes the desired size (don’t forget to round the bottom corners). The fleece should
be cut 1/4” smaller all around so it is out of the SA.

 2) Cutting and fusing
Additionally to cutting the pieces as indicated on the pattern pieces, cut:
- For strip : cut 1 exterior fabric - 12” x 2 1/4” ( you can use instead an 1/2” ribbon with the same
length)
- For strip sliding tab : cut 1 in cork fabric - 5/8” x 1 1/2”
- For strip tab : cut 1 in cork fabric - 1” x 3/4” - if using a closure snap see first Appendix A - 1.
Fuse interfacing to all fabrics, Do NOT fuse interfacing to the strip, you do not want this to be stiff.
If using 2 different fabrics on the exterior, first sew the 2 fabrics together and then fuse the fusible
fleece, centered, on the WS of the exterior fabrics.

 Assembling
3 ) Make the strip (fabric not interfaced), by folding the fabrics like in bag straps, fold in half joining the
long raw edges with WS together, press to create a crease then open, fold each edge towards the
center crease and press, fold in half and press again. Topstitch at 1/8” on both long sides (photo 1) -
The strip tab will be applied on a later stage.
4) Take one of the lining fabrics and mark a line at 2 3/8” from the bottom edge. Mark the middle of
that line. Take the previous strip and pin it so it’s towards the top of the lining and the raw edges of the
strip match the long mark, centered with the middle mark. (photo 2). Stitch it securely at 1/8”. Fold the
strip down and stitch again at 1/4” from the strip edge.

 5) Take the other lining piece and mark a line at 1 1/4” from the top edge, mark the center of that line.
Take the sliding tab piece in cork fabric and put a bit of glue on the WS along the 2 short edges, then
flip it and put it on the lining fabric, matching the top of the sliding tab with the line you just drew,
centered. Stitch the sliding tab securely on both short sides (photo 3).
6) At this point If using a closure snap see Appendix A - 2. Join one exterior fabric (the one that will be
the front of the pouch) with the lining piece with the long strip attached RS together and pin the top
edges. Stitch at 1/4” SA. Repeat to sew the other exterior and lining fabrics. Press the lining fabric away
from the exterior so the seam is towards the lining on both sewn pieces (photo 4).

 Finishing
7) Join the 2 pieces RS together, aligning all the edges. Make sure that the seams where the exterior
and lining meet on both sides are aligned. Sew around at 1/4” SA leaving a gap on the lining to turn,
please note that on the lining you should start at 1/4” SA and gradually increase to 3/8” SA (see diagram
bellow), this will help the pouch to be more snug and reduce bunching of the lining.
8) Trim the SA to about 1/8” (not on the open part). Turn the entire pouch to the RS. Press well, stitch
closed the opening on the lining and then put the lining to the inside. Adjust the top seam well so the
lining is lying flush inside. Press again the top seam to flatten. Topstitch at 1/8” around the top edge,
make sure you move the strip out of the way (photo 5).

 9) Now take the tip of the strip and slide it through the sliding strip tab (photo 6), make sure the strip is
not twisted, to make it easier partially fold down the top of the pouch to expose the sliding tab. Put the
phone or something about the same size inside the case so the strip goes all the way down (photo 7).

 10) There will be a remaining of the strip overhanging. (at this point If using a closure snap see Appendix
A - 3). Measure 1” from the edge of the pouch and trim (photo 8).
11) Take the remaining piece, the cork strip tab. (at this point If using a closure snap see Appendix A -
4 to 6). Fold it in half, joining the 2 shorter edges and finger press to make a center crease. Apply glue
along all the tab. Take the fabric strip and slide in the tip so the raw edge is against the middle fold (photo
9). Clip the tab and let the glue dry. Topstitch around the tiny tab.

 You are finished!

 ALTERNATIVE PATTERN PIECES TO CUT EXTERIOR IN 2 DIFFERENT FABRICS
To make a full body A piece in 2 different fabrics, cut the exterior fabrics with these pieces
instead and sew A-1 to A-2 with 3/8” SA.

 Adding a closure snap
The sleeve phone pouch was conceived to be a snug fit, so the phone won’t slide out easy, but if you
worry about the security of your phone, the next steps show you how to add a snap to the strip tab.
1 - To start, the strip tab needs to be bigger than on the tutorial instructions. On my example I used a
3/8” magnetic snap, really tiny, so I cut my strip tab 3/4” (w) x 1 1/2” (h), but if you are going to use a
bigger snap you have to enlarge the tab accordingly so the snap fits and you still have some edge to
stitch the tab in the end.
2 - Before you sew the front exterior fabric to the lining with the long strip, install the female part of the
snap : measure 1” down from the top raw edge of the front exterior fabric, centered, and apply your
female part of the snap (fig. A).
3 - The strip must be a bit longer than instructed in the tutorial, because it needs to bend forward to meet
the snap on the exterior front fabric, again in my case I measured 1 3/4” from the sewed edge and
trimmed. (fig. B), you might need to adjust this measurement depending of the size of you strip tab.

 4 - Take the strip tab and fold in half to make a center crease. Find the center of one of the sides and
apply the male part of the magnetic snap like on fig. C.
5 - Apply glue along all the WS of the tab. Take the fabric strip and slide in the tip so the raw edge is
against the middle fold on the side without snap, make sure you are applying on the correct side of the
strip, the WS of the snap should be facing the front of the pouch, it should look like on fig. D, then fold
the part with the snap down and clip. Let the glue dry.

 6 - To finish we need to stitch the tab securely, because of the bulk of the snap it might not be an easy task, so if not at all possible to stitch around, stitch only on the strip side (fig. E).
Note : Instead of the magnetic snap you can use another kind of snap, like a KAM snap for example. In that case you can leave to apply the male part of the snap after stitching the strip tab to the strip.