The Boxy Bag has been seen in various forms, big and small, with or without lining, for years. This is hardly surprising, as the Boxy Bag, originally intended as a cosmetic bag, impresses with its angular look and details such as the handle and a prominently placed zipper. Like many other sewists, I have fallen for the shrinking craze, and today I’ve brought you a truly charming sewing project: Let’s sew a Key Pouch.
Small, Smaller, Mini – Sewing a Key Pouch
I’m Stephi from the label Frollein Tausendschön. On my instagram.com/frollein_tausendschoen, everything revolves around sewing, embroidery, and plotting. In today’s sewing project, a little bit of finesse is required, as we are sewing a complete Boxy Bag in mini format. The little key pouch is perfect for showcasing leftover pieces of beloved fabric and makes a real eye-catcher on your keychain or as a bag charm. Of course, the small pouch is also practical: a shopping cart chip, lip balm, or similar items fit perfectly inside.
Sew a Key Pouch – No Pattern Needed
For the Key Pouch, you only need a few pieces of fabric; the pouch doesn’t even require a paper pattern. The pieces can be conveniently cut with a rotary cutter or scissors and a quilt ruler.
For both the outer and lining fabric, you should choose lighter-weight woven fabrics. A little tip: the pieces from classic charm packs of many quilt fabrics are just the right size for a Micro Boxy Bag.
I sew the Double Zipper Pouch on my BERNINA 570 QE and use the Reverse Pattern Foot with Clear Sole #34 as well as the Zipper Foot.
The Materials
- Outer fabric (cotton, lighter-weight woven fabric) 12 x 13 cm
- Lining fabric (lighter-weight woven fabric) 12 x 13 cm
- Batting H630 12 x 13 cm
- Interfacing G700 12 x 13 cm
- Bias tape or binding 60 cm length
- Continuous zipper 15 cm length
- Scrap piece of leather paper or faux leather (non-fraying)
- Matching sewing and quilting thread
- Small carabiner or key ring
- Labels and other embellishments as desired
Cutting
The cutting for the Key Pouch is done without a paper pattern. You can easily cut the pieces with scissors or a rotary cutter and quilt ruler:
- 1x Outer fabric: 12 x 13 cm
- 1x Lining fabric: 12 x 13 cm
- Batting: 12 x 13 cm
- G700: 12 x 13 cm
Sewing the Key Pouch – The Instructions
General Information Before You Start Sewing
Unless stated otherwise, the seam allowance is 1 cm. Lock the stitches at the beginning and end of each seam. You should adjust the stitch length to suit your choice of materials. I sew the Micro Boxy Bag with a stitch length of 3.5.
Preparing to Sew the Key Pouch
First, press the batting onto the back of the outer fabric. The lining fabric will be treated with G700. Follow the instructions from your interfacing manufacturer here. When applying the batting, be sure to press lightly with the iron or press, and do not use a back-and-forth motion, as this could flatten the batting.
Sewing the Key Pouch – Let’s Get Started
Our Micro Boxy Bag holds its own compared to the larger versions. For a particularly nice look, we first quilt the exterior piece with batting. Whether you choose to quilt the surface with free-motion quilting, use rulers, or simply add some topstitching is up to you. You can also skip this step, but quilting gives the Micro Boxy Bag a particularly beautiful appearance and additional shape.
I use cotton thread (here the Silk finished Cotton 40 from Mettler) and the Adjustable Ruler Foot with Slit #72S for quilting.
Attaching the Bias Tape
Many large Boxy Bags feature bias tape or binding at the zipper edge. Our Micro Boxy Bag also gets this finishing touch. You can use commercially available bias tape or make your own binding.
First, unfold the bias tape and pin it to the 12 cm long upper and lower edges of the exterior fabric.
Now, sew the bias tape to the upper and lower edges along the first fold.
Next, fold the bias tape over the edges and pin everything in place with some fabric clips.
Then, topstitch the bias tape along the front side with a narrow seam allowance of 0.2 cm to secure all the layers.
Sewing the Zipper onto the Key Pouch
Now it’s time to add the zipper. Cut the zipper slightly longer than the upper and lower edges of the exterior fabric.
The zipper is a very prominent detail, especially with the small size of the bag. I like to work with double-sided sewing tape to initially connect the layers. This ensures even spacing, making sewing much easier.
If you’re using it, apply a strip of Style-Fix to both the upper and lower edges of the exterior fabric. Be careful not to sew over the tape directly (as the needle can quickly get stuck in it, which can be frustrating).
Remove the backing paper strips, then position the zipper tape right side to right side, with the beautiful fabric sides facing each other, at the upper and lower edges of the exterior fabric. Secure everything with some fabric clips.
Now, add the lining fabric. Place it right side to right side on the exterior fabric, with the zipper sandwiched between the two layers.
Secure all layers with clips and sew the zipper along the upper and lower edges with a 1 cm seam allowance. Use the Zipper Foot #4.
Turn everything right side out through one of the side openings. Shape the zipper edges nicely and press them if necessary (be careful not to touch the zipper teeth when pressing).
Next, topstitch the zipper along the bias tape (or the exterior fabric if you skipped the bias tape) with a narrow seam allowance. This ensures everything lies flat and prevents fabric from getting caught in the zipper. There should now be two topstitching lines on the bias tape.
Attaching the Zipper Pull
Let’s continue with the Key Pouch. Now that the exterior and lining fabrics are connected with the zipper, take your zipper pull and thread it onto the zipper.
Now, slide the zipper pull off the other side so the zipper is completely closed.
Next, open the zipper slightly from one side until it is about halfway open.
From this open side, pull the zipper pull a little to reopen the zipper in the middle. Be sure to keep both ends of the zipper closed.
To finish, sew the bottom edges of the lining and exterior fabrics closed along the side seams to complete the Micro Boxy Bag.
Carrying Handle and Attachment of the Key Pouch
To make sure it lives up to its larger siblings, our Micro Boxy Bag naturally gets a carrying handle. For this, it’s best to use materials that don’t fray, such as kraft paper, faux leather, cork, or felt. Cut the carrying handle to 1.5 cm height and 6 cm length.
Large Boxy Bags typically feature a kind of “stopper” at the zipper ends. We’ll incorporate this into our Micro version as well. One side of this stopper serves as a hook for a carabiner, key ring, or similar item. On the other side, feel free to use a label.
There are several options for the attachment, and it depends a bit on what hardware you want to use to later attach your Micro Boxy Bag to a keychain.
Here, I’ll show you two examples.
For the yellow pouch, I’m using a small plastic carabiner and a piece of paracord for the attachment. I need to integrate this completely now, as the closed carabiner can’t be opened after it’s attached. To do this, I threaded the carabiner onto a piece of paracord and sealed the ends with a lighter. For the other side of the zipper stopper, I use a label.
Alternatively, you can make a small tab through which you can later thread a key ring. You only need another piece of non-fraying material (just like the carrying handle), which you cut to 1.5 cm height and 5 cm length, then fold it in half.
This tab will be sewn in immediately, and you can later thread a key ring onto it. For the other side of the zipper stopper, I also use a label here.
Sewing the Key Pouch – Completing the Pouch
Now we will attach the attachments and carrying handle to the Micro Boxy Bag and close and finish the remaining seams.
Cutting the Corners
Now, carefully turn the Micro Boxy Bag inside out. Even if you have secured the zipper ends with hand stitching, make sure the zipper doesn’t open all the way to the ends.
Next, place the Micro Boxy Bag in front of you so that the zipper is exactly in the center of the short ends. Be sure to measure and then secure it with fabric clips.
To give the Micro Boxy Bag its typical shape, we now need to cut out the corners.
First, mark the corners with a soluble pen on all four edges. From the zipper (measured from the long edge upward) mark 1.3 cm, and along the long edge (measured from the short edge at the fabric fold of the long edge) mark 1.5 cm.
Then, cut these four corners through all layers. Make sure to keep the clips securing the zipper in place to prevent shifting. It’s best to use sharp scissors that go all the way to the tip to cut the corners as precisely as possible.
Attach Zipper Stopper and Attachment
Next, you will need your zipper stoppers or labels and the attachment/tab for the carabiner or key ring.
On one side, slide the label (or a zipper stopper made of kraft paper or similar) into place. When using a label, make sure the printed side faces up towards the zipper.
Place the zipper stopper centrally under the zipper, between the layers. On the opposite short side, slide in your attachment.
NOTE: If you like, you can now temporarily secure the short edges with a basting stitch of 0.5 cm seam width to make further processing easier.
Close and Finish Short Edges
The inside of our Micro Boxy Bag is just as impressive as the large version because we also finish the edges with bias tape.
First, cut 6 pieces of bias tape, each 5 cm long.
Pin each piece of bias tape to the short edges of the Micro Boxy Bag. Open the bias tape and secure it edge to edge on the short sides. The zipper should face you to ensure that the “nicer” side of the bias tape will be visible on the inside.
Secure the bias tape at the machine in the first fold of the tape. This will connect all the layers. Be sure to sew slowly, especially around the zipper, and consider using the height adjustment and/or hand wheel for more control.
Now, let’s fold in the overhanging bias tape. First, fold the bottom edge of the bias tape inward.
Next, wrap the bias tape around the short edge. This will fully encase the edge. Secure everything with clips and repeat on the opposite side.
Now stitch the bias tape once more along the top edge, attaching all layers together. The zipper should face you during this process.
Integrate the handle, close the corners, and finish the edges
Final stretch with our Micro Boxy Bag…
Before the four corners are closed, the handle needs to be placed.
Simply slide it through the open zipper and then through the still open corners of one short side.
The handle should fit perfectly into the two open corners. Make sure that it does not twist while inserting it.
To close the corners, fold the fabric at the corners towards the center of the bag. This will align the corners neatly. Fold the short edge that is already covered with bias tape downwards and fix it with clips.
Now close the seams of the four corners with a 0.5 cm seam allowance. Again, make sure to use the height adjustment or the handwheel if needed.
Next, as we did with the short edges, finish the corners with bias tape.
Pin the open bias tape to the corners and fix it in place along the first fold of the tape. Then, wrap the corners as we did before with the bias tape (you might want to trim any excess tape on the sides) and stitch it once more close to the edge. CAUTION: This step involves several layers of fabric. Be sure to use the height adjustment or the handwheel. If you encounter any difficulty during the final stitching, you can easily secure the bias tape on the back of the Micro Boxy Bag with a few hand stitches. This won’t be visible in the finished pouch.
To finish, you just need to turn the Micro Boxy Bag right side out and shape it a little with a corner and edge turner. Push the bias tape of the corner bindings neatly into the corners to give the bag its sharp, boxy shape.
And then… you can celebrate a little and enjoy! Your Micro Boxy Bag is finished! And pssst: These little pouches are quite addictive and multiply quickly. But that’s okay, as they make great gifts.
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