Where do you put a hankie, if neither shirt nor pants have pockets? Cuffs, bra ...? Most of us would stash it behind a pile of paper or under a pillow - and forget about it.
No longer. From now on handkerchiefs will have a pretty place of their own. Sew one of these cute, little pouches to match your interior decoration and carry it around. Or, better still, make one for every room!
You'll need:
for the striped pouch:
- fabric scraps, 21 by 32 cm plus 7,5 by 7,5 cm,
- ribbon 42 cm long and 1,5 cm wide,
- felt scraps;
for the single-coloured, two-fabrics pouch:
- sturdy fabric 16,5 by 32 cm plus 7,5 by 7,5 cm,
- organza 12 by 40 cm,
- organza 56 by 6 cm for the string;
matching sewing thread for each set.
Here is how it's done:
The basic variant (striped pouch):
Serge the rectangle as well as the circle, e.g. with the overlocker. Then fold back a hem of 6 cm and iron.
Sew the shorter edges together, right sides facing each other. The result will be a tube. Iron the seam allowances flat to both sides.
Now fold back the ironed hem for good and stitch right along the edge. Sew another seam in a 10 to 12 mm distance (depending on your fabric). The 2 seams will make up the tunnel for the string.
For the string to be drawn through later on, you need to open up the tunnel. Just rip up some stitches with your seam ripper between the 2 seams on the outside. The scrupulous amongst you might not like the fact that the seam will be kind of in the spotlight right beneath the bow. This can of course be avoided by inserting a buttonhole previous to sewing the tunnel, but I left it out for the sake of simplicity.
Ruffle the body's base edge, pin it to the circle, right sides facing each other, and stitch it on. A little marking helps with distributing the excess width: divide the body as well as the bottom, each in 4 parts, and fit the marks together.
Pick up the ribbon with a safety pin and thread it through the tunnel. Finally stitch a felt strip about 1 cm wide around the ends of the ribbon and adorn the pouch with 8 little felt squares.
That's it!
The two-fabrics variation:
Sew together the short edges of the organza rectangle, right sides facing each other, resulting in a tube. Press the seam open. Fold the tube in half, right sides out, and serge both layers together at the remaining (base) open edges. Ruffle the entire edge.
Make a tube out of the sturdy fabric as well. Press the seam open. Pin the ruffled organza tube onto the right side of the body tube and sew both parts together.
Now the tricky part. Tuck the body back about 1,5 cm taking the organza layers along, pin the whole thing, and stitch through all layers. This will create the tunnel, which of course has to be opened up a bit like the one above.
The bottom is done exactly like the one of the basic version.
Fold the organza band in half, sew along the edges, turn it over, and sew the hole shut. Place the turning hole in the middle, where it will conveniently slip inside the tunnel. Make a nice bow and ...
... you're done!
