Can you use a sewing machine ? My skills are self taught and very basic. Most projects are done with a simple straight stitch. To start and finish a stitch line I use the reverse function for five or six stitches at each end. That’s it, not hard at all. I do find rounded corners to be a bit tricky though, and adding a zipper is a bit ambitious.
Here are two pouches I made :
The first one is from a piece of worn out work trousers. One end folded over, stitched all around, then turned inside out for use, with a boot lace to tie it closed. That’s about as simple as a pouch can get. It carried my tools around Tasmania, across Australia and a couple of times overseas. I like it, a lot actually, but eventually thought I’d like a slightly bigger and newer one.
The second pouch is bigger and stronger. I’m pleased with the result. Some grey canvas from a cloth store, a length of strap for the edge, and some cotton to put it together.
There are only four parts : front panel, sides, back panel, and edge.
The pocket was made first, that’s a front panel with sides. The front has rounded corners on the bottom. The front and sides stitched together. The untidy hem inside was then stitched against the inside of the side panel. From the outside the exposed stitch line looks neat, and it also now has the strength of a double stitch. The top edge received a small hem to look tidy and stop fraying.
The back panel is twice as long as the pocket, and has all corners rounded. The finished pocket was stitched to one end of the back panel. The yellow edge went on last, resulting in another double stitch around the tool-carrying part of the pouch.
The yellow strap was thick and fiddly to work with. It had to be folded in half length ways, pinned, and then stitched. A few pins got bent. Ironing the fold would have been a good idea. The rounded corners were a bit challenging, and twice I missed a section of cloth.
In the beginning I wanted to do one long stitch all the way around the pouch, to look shop-bought. Now I think it better to stitch in sections, each straight edge on its own and then go around and do each corner on its own. Perhaps not as elegant but definitely strong and hard-wearing.
A Velcro strap from my parts box is holding it closed. And I still use the old pouch too, it fits nicely inside the new one holding the small stuff like Allen Keys and 8mm spanner.
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