By Laurie Pessetto Create an elegant, soft, travel pouch to protect jewelry from damage and keep it organized even when your suitcase gets tossed into a plane or trunk! Skill Level Good sewing skills, moderate difficulty This beautiful jewelry pouch has separate compartments for holding earrings, rings, and pins while the center of the pouch can be used for coiled necklaces or bracelets. Materials: Paper Solid light weight woven fabric Sheer decorative fabric Form Flex All Purpose Drawstring Beads Threads Fabric glue Tools: Ruler Iron Ironing board Press cloth Water Scissors (paper and fabric) Pins Disappearing fabric marker Pencil Create your pattern. The decorative fabric will be on the edges of the circle layers. Cut all the fabric and interfacing pieces. The Form Flex All Purpose will go on the wrong side of the fabric. Continue to next page for instructions Use a press cloth and steam iron to fuse the Form Flex All Purpose. Mark bottom and top on the center Form Flex All Purpose pieces.
1. Create a pattern of two circles, one 12 ¾ and one 7. You can mark the sewing lines on the pattern as you work. 2. Cut two 12 ¾ circles of basic fabric, two 7 circles of basic fabric, and one 13 and one 8 circle of decorative fabric. Cut two 3 circles of Form Flex All Purpose for the large circle and one 7 circle of Form Flex All Purpose for the small circle. Cut two ½ by ¼ rectangles of Form Flex All Purpose to reinforce the button holes. It will simplify assembly to label each piece with a pencil on the wrong side to keep them straight. 3. Fuse the 7 Form Flex All Purpose circle to the wrong side of one of the small basic fabric circles. Mark this circle as bottom if desired. Cut a 1 X in the center of the Form Flex All Purpose on the small circle of fabric. This will be the bottom layer of the pouch center. 4. Fuse one 3 Form Flex All Purpose circle and the two small rectangles to the wrong side of one of the large basic circles. Use the pencil to mark bottom on the Form Flex circle. Fold the large circle bottom in half and mark the button hole positions on the fold 2 in from each edge. 5. Next, make the two button holes in the bottom of the large circle on the small Form Flex All Purpose rectangles. The button holes should be perpendicular to the circle edge, not parallel. The opening needs to be larger than the width of the drawstring. When done, gently roll up the edges of the Form Flex All Purpose with your finger and trim close to the stitching of the button holes to reduce bulk. 6. Fuse the second 3 circle to the wrong side of the other large circle and mark it top. Cut a 1 X in the center of the Form Flex All Purpose on this large circle (with no button holes). This will be the top of the outside pouch piece and will have the decorative fabric on the right side. When finished the X cuts will face each other and be encased in the stitched layers. Sew the button holes and trim the Form Flex All Purpose edges. The right side of one of the large circles will get a decorative edge. Mark the decorative fabric seam lines. A seam ripper works well to start the X cuts in the centers. Fuse the 3 circles onto the wrong sides of the large circles. The decorative steps are optional. Remove the centers and cut the inside circle edges to ease when turning under. Fold the raw edge under and stitch the decorative fabric onto the top small and large circles. (Continued on next page)
7. If the decorative fabric is thin and might fray, like this flower print, leave the seam allowances extra wide and don t trim them. These flowered edge borders are decorative only. I also embroidered a decorative fabric circle onto the right side of the bottom of the large circle. To simplify the project, eliminate the decorative steps. You might also leave the outer edge round and not form petals. 8. Remove the center of the decorative fabric circles. They will look like donuts. Mark the stitching line on the decorative fabrics with a disappearing fabric marker. Make straight cuts less than ¼ into the center donut hole decorative fabric circle seam allowances to allow stretch as you turn the edge under for stitching on both decorative fabric circles. 9. Place both fabric donuts on the right sides of their respective circles. The top large circle with the flower edging is the piece with the X cut. The small circle with the decorative flower edging on the right side is the top of the small circle. The top is not cut! The Form Flex All Purpose is on the wrong side of the small circle bottom with the X cut. 10. Stitch the decorative fabric circles onto the respective large and small fabric circles along the inside by tucking the raw edge under and stitching on the folded edge. Secure each seam with a couple back stitches. 11. Place right sides together and stitch the outside seam forming the petals. Leave extra wide seam allowances of the decorative fabric if it frays easily. Sew the small circle together with right sides facing in. 12. Trim the V shape of the petals a small amount and make a slit in the decorative fabric close to the tip of the seam. Trim the solid fabric seam allowances. 13. Turn the bottom by pulling it gently through the X cut in the center. Repeat with the small circle, right sides together. Trim this circle the same as the large circle, and turn. Coax the seams out straight and then press them to get nice edges that will lie flat and smooth. Place right sides together and stitch the outside of the large circle to form the petal edges. Cut a slit to the V between the petals and trim the solid fabric seam allowances, but not the decorative fabric if it might fray. Straighten the seams and press using a press cloth and a low steam setting. Place the X cuts in the small and the large circles so they touch and the circles are centered. Stitch the small circle together. Turn both circles by pulling the edges through the X cuts gently. Create the draw string casing with two circle seams a half inch from each other, along the edge of the decorative fabric. Stitch the layers together with a center circle, and sew rays from that circle to the edge of the small circle. (Continued on next page)
14. Create the drawstring casing by stitching ½ in from the decorative fabric circle and again just inside the edge of the decorative fabric. 15. Place the small circle, decorative side up, X cut touching the opposite X cut on the center of the large circle. The X cuts will face each other in the centers. 16. Stitch the layers together with a minimum 2 wide center circle. Stitch straight rays from the stitched circle to the edges to create the pouch pockets. Back stitch the seam ends to secure them well. Trim all thread ends carefully, top side first, then the back side so any ends that work loose will be on the bottom. 17. You ll want enough drawstring to wrap it around a couple times and then tie a bow. Cut two drawstrings long enough to encircle the pouch, have string to draw, wrap, and tie, and to secure the beads on the ends. 18. Pin your two drawstrings together with a safety pin that will fit through the button hole. Thread both drawstrings through one hole to the opposite hole. Free one end and pull it out the second button hole. Continue threading the remaining drawstring back to the first hole and out. Cut two sections of draw string long enough to loop back with around 12 to tie and thread through the casing. Re pin the end that needs to be threaded the opposite direction to the second button hole and draw it out so the draw strings form two U s. Pin both ends and thread them around to the opposite button hole. Pull one end out and then continue threading the other end back out where you started. Thread both draw string ends through all the beads. Tie a knot at the bottom bead and then thread the ends back up through the remaining beads. Knot the end, dab with glue, and stick it into the top bead to dry. 19. Re pin the other end and thread in the opposite direction to get the second drawstring ends to match up. The strings will form two U s inside the pouch so you can pull from both sides at once to close the pouch. 20. Secure the beads on the drawstring ends with a knot and a dab of fabric glue. Trim the ends. Two ends will terminate at each bead. 21. Pack your jewels and bon voyage! Pack your jewels and bon voyage! Hints Select a light weight woven fabric that is able to gather tightly together in small folds to facilitate complete closure of the pouch when drawn tight. The large circle needs to be wide enough to leave an inch to an inch and a half for the draw string and to allow the fabric to gather together when the draw string is tightened. The difference in width between the circles allows the large circle to draw to enclose the entire small circle. I suggest a 12¾ diameter large circle, and a 7 small circle, allowing for ¼ or narrower seams. The lip outside the drawstring creates the decorative petals to frame the pouch. The gap between the casing and the pouch pocket edge allows the fabric to draw tightly. The fusible interfacing shapes the pockets, the roundness of the pouch, supports the button holes, and also reinforces and inhibits fraying of the fabric where the X s are cut to turn the circles. You might use a fray control liquid or washable fabric glue lightly on the edges of the thin, decorative fabric before you sew if you d like to secure the edges. Labeling the sides of the circles top and bottom lightly with a pencil will help you cut the X s in the correct pieces.
HTC provides helpful general fusible interfacing instructions and hints at this address: http://www.htc retail.com/pdf/interface.pdf About Form Flex All Purpose Form Flex All Purpose provides medium weight interfacing in an easy to use, soft cotton. The fuse forms quickly and solidly on a wool or cotton setting with steam. Form Flex All Purpose is a perfect match for a light to medium weight fabric that needs to be stabilized, strengthened, or shaped in certain places. For more information, go to: http://www.htc retail.com/form flex Please like us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/htc Retail/141149719304699 We publish free projects, events, and news about interesting books, videos, products, and competitions every month. If you ve created a project with an HTC material, we d love to see it. When you post it to your Facebook page, please tag our Facebook page as well. If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas you d like to see, please contact us: Phone: (678) 514 0400 Toll Free: (800) 275 4275 Fax: (678) 510 0349 Email: info@htc retail.com