Tutorial: Folded Two Compartment Pouch/clutch

Yo!

What happened? Two posts in a week? Yup, and we even have a tutorial post! This time we would like to share a tutorial for a folded-two compartment pouch. If you have made pouches before, this one is a very simple one. Just a twist from the usual pouch. This pouch actually only has one compartment, but since the zipper is in the middle, we can fold it into two and voila, now you have two compartments!

Materials

1. Outside fabric: 20 x 28 cm (2 pieces) and 41.5 x 28 cm (1 piece)
2. Lining fabric: 20 x 28 cm (2 pieces) and 41.5 x 28 cm (1 piece)
3. Fusible interfacing: 18.5 x 26.5 (4 pieces) and  40 x 26.5 cm (2 pieces)
4. Zipper: 28cm
5. Fabric for covering the ends of the zipper: 2.5 x 5cm (4 pieces)
6. Snap fasteners (2 pairs. I recommend to use the big size one. Unfortunately I didn't have the big one so I use the standard small snap fasteners)
7. Swivel clip (I used the 3.5 cm)
8. Ring (you can use any ring size. I used the 1.8cm)
9. Fabric for strap tab (3.5 x 7cm) and strap (3.5 x 30 cm). I used bias binding leftover from my previous project. If you like it much wider, you can go with 7x7cm for strap tab and 7x30cm or strap.
10. Ribbon to cover the strap joint, 6cm long. I recommend to use ribbon with wide at least 2 cm.

How to make it

1. Prepare the fabric. 

Iron all the fabrics before ironing the fusible interfacing. Make sure there are no threads stuck between the fabrics and the fusible interfacing.

If you have your own label/tag, don't forget to sew it now. I decided to put it in one of the outside fabric.

2. Sew the strap and the strap tab

Since I used a bias binding leftover, I just sew the open side together. But if you made the strap and strap tab from scratch, fold inside both sides lengthwise, then fold it again in half. Sew the open side, around 3mm from the edge.

For the strap tab, pull inside the ring and fold it into half. Sew it to one of the side of the outside fabric.

For the strap, pull inside the swivel clip. Meet both ends, put one end on top of another, sew it together. It will be pretty tricky since the fabric will be quite thick. However, you don't have to worry if you have messy sewing (like what I did) cause you'll cover it with ribbon.

And this is the cheat part. Pull the join that you just sew near the swivel clip. Cover the join and the opposite part of the strap together with ribbon. Glue (I always use UHU glue. They're good.).

3. Sew the zipper

First, we have to cover both ends of the zipper with fabrics. This is to make the folded part much nicer. Remove all the zipper stops. I usually just cut the top stop. Sandwich both ends with the right sides of the cover fabrics. Pin it around 1.5 cm from the edge. Sew. 

Fold over the cover fabrics one the seam. Top stitch around 3mm from the folded line. Do it for both sides.

Now we're going to sew the zipper to the fabrics. Sandwich the zipper between the right sides of one outside and one lining fabrics, with the top zipper teeth facing the right side of the outside fabric. Make sure all the edges are in line. Pin, then sew with zipper foot. 

Once you finished, fold the outside and the lining fabrics along the seam line. Do the same thing to the other side of the zipper tape: sandwich it with the outside fabric and the lining, pin, sew, fold it over. Iron the fold on both sides of zipper tape. Top stitch along the zipper.

It will look like this. From now on, I will call this Side A

4. Sew the rest of the fabrics (side B).

Sandwich side A with the 41.5cm x 28cm outside and lining fabrics. The rule is simple: meet the outside with outside, lining with lining. Pin.

Sew three of the sides, leaving one of the width side open. Start sewing around 2-3 cm from the top.

Next, the tricky part. Go to the unsew side. Sew the open side only the outside fabric. Don't forget to open the zipper inside before sewing. Sew all around. Cut all the corners to make the turn inside-outside easier.

Next, turn everything through the open on the lining and the zipper. This will be very tricky, but slowly you'll get there! Turn it over until the lining part is outside.

Now we have to close this open side. Fold inside the edges, and pin it together. Don't forget, you have to start sewing from the sides too. If you want a very clean seam, you can hand stitch it instead.

Fold over and voila! You got your pouch/clutch!

But not yet. Turn it over. Hand sew the snap fasteners, both male half in one side and female half in other side. Position them around 3 - 4 cm from the corners. 

Attach the clip strap to the ring, and finished!

This all fit in this pouch, even more.

It's a pretty simple twist from the usual pouch, but with room twice bigger. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial.

See you next time.

Fili&Lino