I know, when it comes to hand sewing, there are some parts that can be rather tricky to sew. Like the pouch corners at the bottom of your pouch. But there is really no need for despair. I have some hand sewing tricks concerning this section for you.
Todays motto is: “Hand sewing the corners” 🙂
I will show you how you can master the corners of your pouch rather easily.
…and how you can make nice pointy pouch corners for your own pouch, like shown on the picture underneath:
And now to the first hint concerning the second step of our second “Craft with Racaire” project: “hand sewing the corners” of our fast and easy pouch. 😀
[emember_protected not_for=4 do_not_show_restricted_msg=1]…I am sorry, but this content is restricted to users with Premium membership.
You surely remember the seam treatment of the side seams we started in my last posting – “Hand sewing of the sides“. A proper seam treatment like this will increase the life time of your pouch and everything else you hand sew. It will also increase the joy of using your pouch because it will prevent you from any fraying threads (from your pouch) in the future.
I remember the time very well when I started with hand sewing 14 years ago. I still can’t think of something that is more annoying then your hand or a ring getting caught in fraying threads of your pouch while you try to get to your keys, purse,… I never wanted to have this experience again and therefore I started searching for good seam treatment techniques. …and well, I was successful – I found some period techniques which work very well.
Nowadays I am rather keen on seam treatment and any kind of finishing techniques. Not only that a nice seam treatment or finishing technique can make your projects look much better, it also makes it more durable and machine washable. Yes, I throw nearly everything besides my wallhanging into the washing machine – delicates or wool program and cold or very low temperatures…
…but back to hand sewing the corners of the pouch. As I already mentioned, it can be a little bit tricky. The first small difficulty starts with “folding in” and turning the seam over the corner.
You might ask why I find this point so important. This seam part at the corner will go to the inside and no one will see it again… Yes, but I think that you can only make a good and beautiful project when you work every step of it at your highest possible standard. That means – concerning this pouch corners – if you work this corner properly and make it look good and perfect from the beginning and it already looks good on the inside – it will also look good and perfect when we turn it inside out. …and back to the tutorial… 😉
Lets assume you followed my instructions of my last posting “Hand sewing of the sides” and you are just some Centimeters (or an Inch) away from the corner. Just proceed as you are already used to and fold the seam in the middle. You can see at the picture underneath that ca. 5mm of my seam will be “folded in” to the inside. As I already wrote in my last posting, 5mm (ca. 0.2 in) are not much but you really need at least this amount of extra fabric at the inside for this seam finishing technique. Now take this folded seam and flip it over the corner – over your line of sewing stitches..
…you will see that what you get looks rather bulky and not like a nice pointy corner. To get your nice pointy corner you can use a tool with a point now. I normally use one of my embroidery scissors for this purpose but you can also use an awl, hair stick… whatever you have.
Carefully use your pointy tool at the inside of your seam to press your pointy corner (the edge of your line of sewing stitches) to the outside. You can also take the tool to the “inside” of the pouch and carefully press the corner to the outside. Please be very carefully! You don’t want to pull any threads of your fabric or to make a hole into your corner!
This way you get a nice and flat seam on top of the fabric. As soon as you turn your pouch inside out again and your seam to the inside, this step assures that you also get a nice corner at the outside of your pouch at this place.
While carefully stretching the seam with my thumb over my fingers on the inside of the fabric, I work the last stitches and sew the edge of the folded seam to the outer fabric.
The more I get to the corner the more I stretch the folded seam over my fingertips. It really helps to use a needle without a tip at this point.
Just some more stitches and you mastered your first seam over the corner… Proceed with the rest of your seam. You will see – the more practice you have, the faster you will be able to work this seam treatment technique…
After finishing both side seams we can turn the pouch “inside out” again. Your corner will look similar to my corner at the picture above. Now please get your pointy tool again…
…and carefully pull out the pointy part of your corner with it – your pointy corner is just hiding and waiting to be released by you… If your fabric is more delicate as the one I use on the picture above – that’s not a problem at all… take your pointy tool to the inside of your pouch and press your pointy corner from the inside to the outside! (btw. this should also work with a long chop stick at this point)
I hope you enjoyed my tips and tricks concerning “sewing the corners” of your pouch today. More hints for your hand sewing will follow soon. 🙂
You can find all postings about this project in the category:
Craft with Racaire – #2 fast & easy pouch
Short overview of the postings till now:
Step 1) Fast and easy pouch tutorial & how to work with “rapports”
This posting explains how to calculate the needed fabric for the easy pouch tutorial. I also added some extra information: “how to work with rapports” (repeating patterns).
Step 1.1) Hand sewing stitches: Running Stitch…
This posting is an in-depth description of the first and most basic hand-sewing stitch you will need for this tutorial – the Running Stitch.
Step 1.2) Hand sewing stitches: Back Stitch (and Stem Stitch)…
Another in-depth description of another basic and helpful hand-sewing stitch you will need for this technique – the Running Stitch.
Step 2) Hand sewing the sides
Here you can find a detailed step-by-step photo tutorial about how I hand sew the sides of the “fast and easy pouch”. It includes all important basic steps for this process including the pinning, how to start with the sewing, how to secure your thread from slipping,…
You must be logged in to post a comment.