…and after all the recent progress photos of my new 12th century project “Saint Michael and the Dragon” lets get back again to my second “Craft with Racaire” project – the fast and easy pouch tutorial.

There is still some hand sewing to do until the pouch is finished. …and I took many step-by-step pictures for this project which I would like to share with you… 🙂

In my tutorials concerning step 1 of this project I told you about the materials you need and how I work with “rapports“. I also gave detail information about the used basic hand sewing techniques Running Stitch and Back Stitch and their use in medieval embroidery. In my last postings and tutorials for step 2 I showed you how I work the sides of the pouch. Today we proceed with step 3 and are again getting closer to finish the whole pouch and. After all the work at the side seams and the corners we start working at the top of the pouch today.

If you are looking for a specific information or tutorial step, you can find a detailed link list of my postings till now at the end of this posting.

Todays motto is:
“Hand sewing – Pinning the top!”

…and now lets start with the next step for the the fast and easy pouch tutorial – enjoy! 😀

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To be sure that we are working from the same project/sewing status and also from the same side of the pouch, I put together a short summery of the last steps for you:

The side seams are finished, the pouch is turned “inside out”.

That means that the side seams, at which we worked recently, are now at the inside of the pouch. We can just see the stitches of the seam finishing at the outside. The stitches with which the border of the folded seam was sewed to the (now) inside of the outer fabric.

When you look at the picture underneath – I mean the small white stitches left and right from the middle seam. Before you proceed with the next steps, please take care that you are working from the same side of the pouch as I am and that the seam finishing and the seams are now located on the inside.

…and now to the next step for this project:

Do you remember the small “window”/ “hole” in our side seam near the top like described in my posting – “hand sewing the sides“?

Now we turn this two small “windows”/ “holes” into the openings for our drawstring casing for the pouch.

As you can see at the picture underneath, the top point of this openings for the drawstring casing is also the top edge of the pouch. At the close up picture you can see the stitches with the white thread on top where I made the extra sewing stitches to strengthen this point as described in the above mentioned posting – “hand sewing the sides“. I like to work with this point because even without a lot of measuring this point is always very easy to determine.

As soon as you determined this top point and flipped the excess fabric to the inside, you can already start pinning like shown at the picture above and below.

I normally start to pin at the sides where the opening for the drawstring casing will be located because this is the easiest and fastest point to find without measuring.

Then I put the pouch on a flat surface. The “excess” fabric which is folded to the inside should lie flat and folded in between top and bottom fabric. If it does not by itself, you can move the fabric to the inside and straighten it out with your fingers.

Then I carefully pull the top sides apart and normally immediately get a nice straight edge at the top – also without any measuring, I am just working with natural tension here.

At this point I carefully release the pull and grab the top border in about the middle. I put the first pin into the fabric here before I start pinning more of the top seam / drawstring casing… To be more exact – I am pinning the front fabric to the front “excess” fabric on the inside. You can see how I place my pins at the picture above. As soon as I am finished with the first side, I flip the pouch around and do the same at the other side.

Btw. the above mentioned “excess” fabric on the inside will become the backside of our drawstring casing.
-> See number 3 at the picture on the right – the upper part of section 3 + section 5 are now located as “excess” fabric at the inside of the pouch.

We should also have still enough fabric for the inside bottom seam underneath the drawstring casing and its seam treatment.
-> See number 5 at the picture on the right.

I hope you enjoyed my new posting – I promise to post the next tutorial for this project shortly… 😀

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,…
Step 2.1) Hand sewing the corners
Another detailed step-by-step photo tutorial that shows you how to hand sew the nice pointy pouch corners of your fast and easy pouch.
Step 2.2) How to start a new thread & hide it…
This detailed tutorial shows how I start a new thread while I am working at a seam finishing and how I hide the beginning of the new thread as well as the end of the old thread inside the seam.