Hoo-Ha Pouch Tutorial

Well, it's better than what my husband was calling it.

I've struggled with how to post this tutorial because, honestly, I made this up as I went along. No measurements were involved, the lining had to be redone 4 times and I went through two zippers. It was a bad experience. Translating that into a tutorial has proven difficult. So I decided to assume that if you're reading this you 1) already know how to make a zippered pouch or, 2) know how to google it :) Instead, this is a formula of sorts - with lots of pictures.

*pictures of the finished pouch can be seen in my previous post*

Materials:
Fabric for the outside of your Hoo-Ha
Fabric for the peek-a-boo portion of your Hoo-Ha
Lining fabric
Zipper based on the size pouch you want to make.

1. The hoo-has are made from bias strips of any size. Obviously the wider the bias strips, the bigger the space will be between rows (or the bigger you should make your hoo-has).  I used 1" bias strips for my pouch.

2. Decide the width and height of your pouch. Decide the width of the bias strips you want to use. It might be easiest to make your pouch like I did, with one piece of fabric that, when folded in half, forms both sides of the pouch.

3. Get out your calculator or your favourite 7 year old and figure out how many finished bias strips you will need in order to lay them side by side across the width of the pouch. Multiply that number by the length of the pouch. Make that much flat-fold bias tape.

4. If you have never made flat-fold bias tape just cut bias strips that are twice the width of your finish bias tape. Feed the strips through a bias tape doohickey, like the one in my picture (don't mind the trashy ironing board cover). Press down the folds as you pull the bias tape doohickey along and - voila - flat fold bias tape. The doohickey is totally worth the few dollars at Joann's on a sale day.

4. Lay your pressed bias strips, folded side down, over your peek-a-boo fabric.

5. Pin down your strips then draw lines every so often from end to end. My lines are 1.25" apart.  If the bottom of you pouch will have a larger/flatter bottom, add more space between the lines at the half-way point.

6. Stitch across all your lines.

7. Stretch those fingers and break out the Ben-Gay because it's time to do some hand-sewing. Lots of hand sewing. The method is just like a cathedral square. Ok, I say that with no prior experience making cathedral squares. But I've seen pictures. It looks similar. So I'm sticking with "same." You're smart, you know if it is or not.

8. Starting at one end, fold back one of the openings to create half a hoo-ha. Stitch that baby down. Since we're using bias tape, a natural curve occurs in the center. Just follow the natural curve from beginning to end, tacking down every so often. I placed a stitch every 1/8 inch. But, if you've read all eight blog posts, you might have noticed that I am not good with eye balling ASE increments.  Keep going. And going. And going. Until you reach the other end. Then make your way back down the other side. Continue across every strip.

This is the only progress picture I have because I would sew one segement here or there until it was finished.

9. Woohoo, all done!  Trim up your fabric and make youself a throw pillow or a centerpiece. You might want to frame it because you spent so much time on this part that you don't think you can go on. But if you do, go to step 10.

10. Start making the pouch. Measure your fabric. Write it down. Fold the fabric right sides together along the short edge and sew up the sides. Square off the bottom (sorry, I forgot to take a picture).
Sew a leftover bias strip around the top raw edges of the pouch.

11. Fold up the edge and press flat.

12. Fold over and pin down.  At this point, things started to fall apart. I stitched down the binding. Nothing fancy, just top stitch. But, the lining also had to be top stitched into the bag so it looked a little sloppy. Next time I won't top stitch at this point . But it's totally up to you.

13. Cut a piece of lining fabric slightly smaller than the outside (hopefully you wrote down the size in step 9). Cut in half width-wise. The zipper is going to be inset in the pouch, which requires sewing the lining to the wrong side of the zipper.

14. Sew the sides of the lining together (I hope you opened the zipper first). Sew across the bottom.

15. Square off the bottom, with the same amount you used on the outside of the pouch.

16.  The following pictures have a different lining than the previous pictures. Remember I said I had to redo it? Don't be confused. It's the same pouch.

17. Place your lining inside the pouch, matching the zipper head to one side of the pouch and the tail to the other side. Then top stitch around to hold it in place (I stitched on the outside binding).  I didn't take any photos at this point because it's hard to do when your middle finger is busy.

But this photo shows how it sits inside the pouch and where I stitched.

The stitching ends up just below the edge where the zipper meets the lining fabric. Much like where you would top stitch when you are making a zippered pouch the normal way.

18. All Done! Zip it up, hope that it doesn't twist because your zipper ends were slightly off, and stuff with fabric.

Then go out and show everyone your Hoo-ha!