Origami pouch tutorial

Remember the small pouches I made as gifts before Christmas? They are really useful because they have a pocket on both sides of the outside.
It was suggested that I do a tutorial on making them so here goes. Let me know if I make a blooper in the instructions. This is a photo heavy post, you can click on most of the photos to get a close up.Cut two pieces of fabric 18.5 inches square or if you are using American fat quarters, 18 inches square will do. One is for the pouch outer and the other will be the lining. The spot fabric is my lining. You will also need two 30 inch lengths of cord and two beads.

Sew the two pieces of fabric, right sides together around all four sides but leave a three inch gap in the middle of one side for turning. Back stitch all seams.
Turn right side out, hand sew the opening closed and press.
Fold the square in thirds, making sure the corners touch each other in the middle as in the photo below. Press the folds with an iron.

Open the square out and fold in half diagonally, your pressed folds should be on the left and right side of the triangle.
Draw lines on the folds three quarters of an inch from the top, right to the bottom and sew on the lines. Remember to back stitch.
Now take one side of the triangle and fold towards the other side. You might like to put your hand inside, hold your tongue in the right position and tug the corner over.

Take a couple of tack stitches by hand right at the corner to hold it in place. Repeat for the other side and it should look like the photo below. Did you do the "tug and tongue" thing? Now doesn't that look like an envelope? Maybe I should rename this the envelope pouch.

Here's a closeup of the first corner That I tacked.

Turn the whole thing inside out, it should look like this. A point turner for the corners is useful.Put your hand inside, just do the tongue thing to help you align it all inside so it all sits neatly in there.

Fold and pin the corners to box them. Mark in an inch from the corner and sew. Oh look, ears! Seriously, this is going to be the inside of the pouch, so now turn it right way out and check those corners are sewn neatly in.

Here's a closer look at the corner.

Fold the top flaps of the pouch over and pin as below.

Sew a 1/4" seam from the top edge all around and then another one a generous half inch below that. This forms the casing which needs to be wide enough to accommodate two thicknesses of cord. You will probably have to take the table off your machine and just use the free arm for this part.

Nearly there! See how I have my hand inside the outer pocket? You need to hand sew the pocket closed from the top to the bottom corner with a slip stitch. Repeat for the pocket on the other side. Just go through the top layers when you're sewing, not right trough all layers. When I got to the bottom corner, I had to do the tongue aerobics again

Take one of the cords and using your favourite implement/tool, thread the cord from one side, around and back to the same side you started at. Repeat for the other cord, this time thread starting from the other side of the casing and back. Thread both ends of each cord through a bead, knot the cords as in the photo and TA_DA, you're done.

Pat yourself on the back! I only had this rather thick cord in my stash and will replace it, a finer cord will close up the pouch better. Of course I will have to put smaller beads on as well.

I hope some of you will get some use out of this tutorial, let me know.

Janet