Tuesday 14 January 2014

A Simple Pouch

Today I decided to sew something for myself. Since I don't have a dedicated sewing space I can't leave my sewing machine and serger set up. I keep them on a shelf until I need them and their respective cords in a basket along with my hot glue gun. The problem is all the cords get tangled and hang out of the basket in a messy fashion. I decided to fix that and took the first step today.
 
I made a pouch for my glue gun and I'm going to do the same for the serger and sewing machine cords sometime this week. It was a simple project that I'm going to share because these pouches could be used for so many different organizing needs.
 
I didn't want ties for closing the pouch because they would look messy. Neither did I want a closure that I would need to open and close - I know - lazy but since I was doing this for myself I decided to go with exactly what I wanted. I used elastic to loosely keep the opening closed. It's wide enough to put the glue gun in and out and tight enough to hold it all in.
 
First I loosely measured my glue gun and decided I needed a pouch that was approximately nine inches square. So my fabric was about ten by twenty inches to account for seam allowances. I folded down one long edge and pressed it. Then I folded it down again a little more than the width of my fabric and sewed the casing for the fabric.
 



 
Figuring out the size of elastic I needed took a bit of trial and error, but I finally decided on ten inches which was about half the width. I threaded the elastic through until it was even with the raw edge and sewed that edge down. I finished threading the elastic through and sewed it down on the other side.
 







I wanted the seams to look nice, but I didn't want to drag my serger out for such a small project, so I went with French seams for the side and bottom. If you don't know what a French seam is they are very simple. First put your fabric wrong sides together and sew a small seam. Turn your fabric inside out so that the right sides are facing and sew a slightly larger seam so that the first one is totally encased. When you are finished you will have a beautiful finished seam with no raw edges showing on either side.


And there you have it - a simple pouch that my glue gun fits in with no cords hanging out. I used blue fabric because my glue gun is blue. I'm colour coding my pouches so I'll know what I'm grabbing - just trying to keep my life simple.



Do you have a dedicated area for sewing/crafts, or do you have to take everything out when you want to sew or craft?

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13 comments:

  1. it is my dream someday to have an area where I can leave my sewing machine out. I would use it so much more if I did. :)

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    1. My dream house has a room just for sewing and crafting. :)

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  2. Great idea and I did not know what french seams are :) Good to know ;) Do you use them often?

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    1. Not often, but they're nice to know about for the odd time I feel they are appropriate (or I'm too lazy to get out my serger).

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  3. Hey Jennifer! I'm Toni and I blog over at www.blessedinalabama.com. We have been grouped together for the SITS Girl Tribe Building along with several other ladies. I tried to create a forum for us to chat as a group over at SITS Girls but couldn't ever get it to work. If no one else has already created us a discussion page we could use this FB group if everyone is on board --> https://www.facebook.com/groups/1396836790573227/

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  4. Hey! I'm from your SITS tribe. I'm not much of a sewer, but I have what my husband calls the "crap" room. It has every project I have to get to on my to-do list in it. So I feel your pain about keeping stuff out. And I love your da Vinci quote. I need to live by that one more! :)

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  5. I'm not much into sewing but had the idea just last week to have my girls learn how to do a simple stitch. It will come in handy, I'm sure.
    Neat idea. Staying organized always helps me to see my way around what I have to do a whole lot better.

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  6. I wish I could sew! Love the bag. Stopping by from SITS!

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  7. Hi Jennifer! Stopping by for our SITS tribe! What a cute pouch! I'm trying to get back into sewing, but as usual, never seem to finish a project. I've recently grown addicted to sewing fabric yo-yos, but haven't figured out what I want to make from them! I look forward to connecting with you this week!

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    1. I once had an idea to sew a bunch of yo-yos and use them like a border around my kitchen.

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