Denim Pouch with Flap Closure

Better late than never, right? Back in November, when I posted my tutorial for the Bean Bag Toss Game, I said I would post the tutorial for the denim pouch "in the next few days." Well, a few days turned into a few months, but here we are - finally!

You Will Need

1 piece of denim 9" x 20". I cut up a pair of old jeans and used the back of one leg. Often the front of the leg either has holes in the knees, or the fabric at the knee is stretched, so it's hard to get a piece long enough from the front, but the back words great.

1 piece of lining fabric 9" x 20"

1 piece of fabric 3" x 4 1/2" for the handle. I used the same fabric for the handle as I used to make the bean bags.

To Make the Handle

With the wrong side facing up, press in 1/4" on both short sides.

 Press in half along the long side, then open again.

 Fold both sides in to the middle crease and press.

Fold in half and press again. Stitch close to the edge along the long side. Don't worry about sewing the short sides now; you'll do that when attaching the handle to the pouch.

To Make the Pouch

**Do these steps for the denim and the lining fabric at the same time.**

With the right side facing up, fold up the bottom, leaving 5" at the top. Pin and stitch both sides with a 1/4" seam.

To press the seam, fold back the top side of the seam allowance and press. Then flip the pouch over and repeat with the other side.

To box the corners, align the side seam with the center of the pouch bottom, forming a triangle. Draw a line 1" from the tip of the triangle. Stitch on the line, then trim away the excess 1/4" from the seam.

To create the shape of the flap, measure in 2" from the side at the top of the bag and cut an angled line to just above the side seam.

Since you have been doing these steps to both the denim and the lining fabric, you are now ready to assemble your pouch. This is always the step where I have to check a tutorial to be sure I'm getting it right - I can never remember which goes inside which! Now I guess I'll be able to check my own tutorial :)

With the denim pouch wrong side out, insert the lining with the right sides facing. Pin around the flap and the top of the pouch. I use two pins together to remind myself to leave a gap for turning the pouch right side out. So, in this picture, I would start stitching at the red pin at the top right, then stop at the two pins together at the top left. Stitch with a 1/4" seam, leaving a gap for turning.

Cut out a notch where the flap meets the side of the bag, to help the fabric lay flat once it is turned right side out. Be careful not to cut through the seam!

Turn the bag right side out through the gap. Press around the flap and the top of the bag. Press the seam allowance under in the gap and pin.

Stitching close to the edge, topstitch around the flap and the top of the bag.

To Attach the Handle

Stand the bag up and center the handle at the top. You don't want it laying completely flat, so leave a bit of a bump in the middle and pin the two sides.

Stitch two lines close together near both short sides of the handle, backstitching a couple of times at the beginning and end of each line of stitching to be sure it will hold securely.

And there you have it! One denim pouch, perfectly sized for a Bean Bag Toss Game, or whatever other treasures you wish :)

If you make one, I'd love to see it! Email me a picture, or tag me on Instagram (@devotedquilter).

Joy!

Devotion for the Week...

Happy Easter!

Last week I looked at how it wasn't fair. Jesus had done nothing wrong, but He paid the price for every wrong done by anyone in the world, ever. There are so many elements of that price that must have been awful. There was the emotional pain of being betrayed by a friend, of being abandoned by His other friends, of having one of them deny even knowing Him. There was the spiritual pain of feeling separated from the Father because of the sin He bore. There was the immense physical pain of the whips, of the thorns, of the cross. I can't even begin to imagine the smallest part of any of that pain, let alone all of it bursting upon one person all at once.

Even though it wasn't fair, and even though He didn't deserve it, He did it all for joy, and He did it willingly.

Before Judas came and identified Him to the soldiers, Jesus spent time praying in the garden. He knew what was coming. He knew the pain He would face and He didn't turn away from it. Yes, He prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me." (Matthew 26:39) because He, as a man, didn't want to face that pain if there was any other way. But there wasn't another way, and He offered Himself with the rest of the prayer, "Yet not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39). Could I have said those words, knowing what was about to come? Could you?

The Bible tells us that Jesus was able to say "not as I will, but as you will" because He had the right motivation. "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). Joy? What joy was set before Him? What joy could be so important to Him that He willingly endured the pain of the cross?

Us. Our salvation, our redemption, our eternity safe and secure with Him. 

Jesus knew that His death was the only way to pay the price for our sins. He knew that He would rise again and that His resurrection would be only the first, that after Him all who believe would also be given eternal life. He knew that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). 

He knew that the pain He suffered would be for our salvation, and so He chose it willingly - for the joy of being our Savior.

WIP Wednesday - A Little Progress

I've been making little bits of progress on a bunch of projects this week, so here's a little update on everything.

This lovely stack is half the units I need for a wedding quilt for my brother and his fiancee. It's in black and white so I don't give them any hints about the colours :) I'm not even trying to get this one finished in time for their wedding (which is in 10 days), but I'm really pleased with how well it is coming together. I'm planning to finish the quilt by the summer, so I think I'm on track for now.

This round of the Round Trip Quilts I have Christina's quilt, which has an autumn/woodland theme. So far I have made three little tents to add to it. Our Easter/spring break starts on Friday, so hopefully I'll have lots of sewing time in the next week to finish my plan for this quilt.

The flowers are fused onto my Psalm 19 mini, and I'm about halfway through stitching around them. It will be nice to finally cross this off my to-do list soon.

 

My epp project is coming along nicely too. Unfortunately, I find my wrist hurts if I spend too much time doing this type of stitching, so I have to limit it. That is really annoying because I could happily spend hours and hours working on this, but I'd really pay for it afterwards. The funny thing is, my wrist doesn't hurt at all while I'm stitching! In my tutorial on how to baste hexagons for English Paper Piecing, I said I don't sew through the paper to the fabric on the front, but these pieces are quite a bit larger and I found that stitching only on the back doesn't work as well.

I'll only be sharing little sneak peeks of this project since it is for a swap with an online friend and I want her to be at least a little surprised when she receives it.

So that's where things stand now. Also, the sun is shining and I'm finding my cabin fever intensifying as I just want to get outside! Thankfully, the snow and ice are gone from our roads, so I can finally start running again. Now if only the 3 or 4 feet of snow would melt so the flowers could start blooming...

Linking up with WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social and NTT.