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| Owl Be Sewing's 3 Zipper Carry Around Pouch... |
This is my eleventh project featuring this collection of fabrics.
I chose Subway Signs as the exterior for this triple zip box pouch for its neutral appeal. (I have no immediate use for it and it may be gifted at some point.) It's also the lining for the middle compartment; the other two linings are Game Pieces (last seen on my fabric plate) and Travel Labels.
Today's project can be found on Owl Be Sewing's YouTube channel. This particular video was uploaded on January 26, 2020. Gina runs the show; her channel used to be called ArtsAndCrafts4You, the very same one that introduced me to the immensely popular 5 pocket zippered pouch.
This zippy, boxy pouch is sort of easy to make, although maybe not as easy as it appears from just watching the video. As I share my photos with you, I'll make mention of where I had issues.
Let me be clear: my issues are my issues alone. I think Gina did a stupendous job with this video in terms of explaining almost everything. The presentation likely made a lot of viewers — like me — want to make one immediately, because we all thought, "hey, I can do that!"
For the zipper-fearing crowd, let me say that the zippers were the easiest part.
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| Making several zipper "sandwiches"... |
Installing the zippers to the two zipper facings and linings was nothing compared to the rest of it. I say that even as I had to deal with directional prints on all three of my fabric choices and had to pin and re-pin pieces several times because I didn't check first to see if they were hanging the right way.
Prepping and quilting the outside panel was also a cinch. (The video calls for the exterior to be 15" long x 12" wide. Because I wanted the one fat quarter to accommodate all of the exterior elements and one complete lining, I sewed together — since the Subway Signs text print is directional — a panel measuring 15" x 11". This meant that my interior lining pieces were also shortened to 5.5" x 11" instead of 5.5" x 12". My zipper facing pieces were also a tiny bit narrower.)
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| Can you tell where the seam is? |
I didn't use fusible foam on my exterior (didn't have any) and instead substituted a layer of fusible fleece topped by a layer of Decor Bond. I then laid down some diagonal quilting lines 1.5" apart.
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| Sturdy enough to stand up on its end... |
As you can see, the finished item is plenty sturdy without using fusible foam.
Speaking of finished item, the dimensions of my box pouch are 6" wide at the ends, 7" wide along the sides and 3.25" high. I used a 3/8" seam allowance through the thick parts and 1/4" otherwise.
So what were my issues? My first difficulty came when the sides of my "under construction" pouch did not line up as evenly as Gina's. (I know why; a least a couple of my lining pieces were cut crosswise, meaning that they tended to stretch as I sewed.)
In the end, I just had to make sure when I sewed the main side seams that the seam allowance was measured from the shortest parts.
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| Top view... |
I also found it quite impractical to machine sew those little fabric pull tabs on top of the end of a separated zipper and had to sew those by hand (just the three of them; the ones at the other end where the zipper wasn't separated were no problem). Further on the matter of zippers, if you use zipper tape and not conventional zippers, you'll have to pull the last one apart in order to do the final topstitching... which is no problem in itself.
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| Bottom view... |
However, when you go to install the zipper head later, you may end up with the pouch suddenly having uneven sides and wonder, how the heck did that happen? As I quickly discovered, this is caused by the zipper teeth being off by a few on one half of the zipper tape. Solution is to keep trying until you get the two sides of the tape going into the zipper head more or less evenly. (Check out my tips for mastering zippers if you need help.)
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| View of middle compartment... |
I've mentioned before that not seeing someone actually sew a project in a video tutorial means that you're not privy to potentially tricky spots. While I'm familiar with the technique of cutting out pieces of corners in order to box them, I also know that cutting into existing stitching usually means that it will start to unravel with repeated handling.
This happened a bit with the lining pieces, but it was especially nasty with the thicker (interfaced) exterior, which needed more man-handling to configure. I ended up resewing the cut seams in order to keep them from separating before doing the boxed corner seams.
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| View of one of the other compartments... |
If I were to make this again, I'd cut the corners out before sewing up the side seams. If you're going to make it for the first time, I'd recommend you do that too.
One last observation: the compartment linings are quite loose fitting. I don't know if I missed something somewhere (or if interfacing them would help), but there you have it.
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| What will you use this for? |
Overall, despite not being as easy as it appears at first glance, this is still a relatively quick project with undeniable appeal. Think makeup, first aid, coloring pens and pencils, small electronics, sewing notions, etc. It's certainly achievable if you take your time. If you're a beginner, I highly recommend using the fusible fleece and mid-weight interfacing combo over foam — i.e., it won't be as thick — as well as using non-directional fabrics.
Just another freebie YouTube tutorial offering surprising value. Really, how many of you would pay for such a pattern?
If (like me) you aren't a big fan of video tutes, check out my post on how to convert into doc format for your own use.
Looks roomy inside and 3 zippers is triple the fun.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate when you take on these projects and tell us how to do them better or at least more easily. Can't wait to try this one - I think I have a little piece of fleece left that I will use instead of the foam. I will, however, not be using directional fabrics! Thanks for this!!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome and thank you also for the appreciation! I've determined that for the rest of my blogging days, I will just keep trying to be helpful with whatever I post. ;-)
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