I am so excited to share another tutorial. This cutie is for a Kyaza Pochi from one of my many Japanese craft books.
Would you believe that this pouch is made with 2 circle fabric pieces? The pouch is fairly easy to sew except for that &!#$# zipper! And I have the pin 'pukas' (local speak for holes) in my fingers to prove it. Ha Ha
Before we start; I need to confess that there is a bit of playing around as you make this pouch. There are parts in the pattern was difficult to decipher but hey, this is just a pouch. So as Project Runway's Tim Gunn would say...just "make it work".
Step 1 : Cut 2 circles: Outer Fabric and Lining - both 9 inch diameter. Cut 1 circle : Iron-on Interfacing: 9 inch diameter ( I used fusible fleece for a soft, thick structure; but light to medium interfacing works too)
Step 2 : Iron the interfacing to your outer fabric on the wrong side; following manufacturer's instructions. Lay 2 fabric pieces wrong side together and pin.
Step 3 : Sew a gathering stitch along the top edge around the circle. Sew no more than 1/4" beyond the top edge. Gather; spreading gathers as evenly as possible to form a 7" pouch; measuring from the left to right top edge.
Step 4 : Cut bias : 2" wide x 15"-17" long (note: I decided to cut a strip in place of a bias strip. Confession: Bias strip? That scares me. I have never made a bias strip and so I wimped out on this one. Plus this is only a pouch). I pressed the two edges towards the center as pictured below but found later that I didn't need to do that.
Step 5 : Sew the two ends of the bias strip together to form a round band. (place the strip around the top edge of your pouch to determine the size for your strip before sewing)
Step 6 : Place the bias strip band along the top edge, right sides together. Pin. Sew along the edge. I used my 1/4" edger sewing foot to sew the strip to the pouch.
Step 7 : Fold the band to the inside of the pouch. Turn raw edge under and hand sew in place.
Step 8 : Now for the dreaded zipper. For this pouch the zipper is hand sewn in. I used a 7" zipper but it was a little short but I made it work. I don't know why but there was no 8" zipper to be found in Walmart or at our local fabric mart store. So I'm not sure if an 8" zipper would fit but I'll try this size for my next pouch. What you say? What did the pattern indicate? Well, after staring at the pattern for some time I could not find any measurement that might be for a zipper! sigh.
P.S. After giving this step a bit more thought, I think that the zipper can be fit to the pouch by adjusting the gathers. So before sewing the bias strip, fit your zipper (be it 7 or 8 inches) along the inside of the top edge, adjusting the gathers to make it work. At this point, it may be necessary to sew a straight stitch along the edge to hold the gathers in place. I'm sorry for this 'iffy' tutorial. double sigh.
...and since I winged it for the zipper, I decided to post pictures from the book on how to stitch it in place...the proper way
And here it is....a pouch that would make you happy happy
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