Do you have a cherished pair of scissors? Where do you keep them so that they stay safe? We have seen some cute little quilted pouches that are ideal for storing your scissors. AND we have some very cute, quilted fabric, so we thought this was a great opportunity to try making one of these pouches. Follow along as we show you how to make a pattern for the pouch and then stitch it into this wonderful creation. They don’t take much fabric, so once you’ve made one for yourself, you’ll have fabric leftover to make one for a friend!
Here’s what you’ll need:
To make your pattern:
Ledger-sized paper (11” x 17”)
Pencil, eraser and ruler
Paper scissors
Something to draw curves (we used a coffee cup)
To make your pouch:
½ yard Double-sided quilted fabric
Extra-wide double-fold bias tape
Fabric Scissors, pins, fabric marker
Thread to match bias tape
Large snap and hand sewing needle
Sewing machine with straight stitch
Iron and Ironing Board
Let’s make our pattern!
Take a sheet of ledger paper and fold it in half bringing the shorter sides together as shown above.
With the folded edge toward you, lay the scissors you’re making the pouch for close to the fold. Take your ruler and mark the size of your pouch, giving lots of room for your scissors. Mark the size of your pouch with the pencil. For our pouch, the line is 5 ½” up from the folded edge on the left, and 1 ½” up from the folded edge on the right.
Open the piece of paper. Use your paper scissor to cut along the marked line.
Fold the paper again as it was before. Trace the cut edge onto the paper behind it.
Fold the paper again as it was before. Now, fold the top of the paper down along the marked line.
Flip the paper over so that the folded edge is facing away from you. Using your pencil, trace the folded edge onto the paper behind it as indicated in the first image above. Then, trace the vertical line on the left as shown in the second image above.
Turn the paper over again and lift the top flap open. This is what your pattern should look like.
Now we need to create nice curves on the four top corners. We placed the bottom of our coffee cup into the corners and traced a nice curve. The curves will make it possible to stitch our bias binding to the edge of the pouch. Trim the pattern on the marked curves.
This is what your finished pattern should look like when it is opened up.
Let’s get sewing!
Pin your pattern piece as shown to the fabric. The side of the fabric that is facing up will become the inside of the pouch. Cut out your fabric along the edge of your pattern. Once is it cut out, make tiny clips with your scissors into the left and right sides of the piece at the original fold line. These little clips will be used as a guide to fold our pouch when we are sewing it together.
Now we are going to apply the bias binding to the straight edge of our pouch. Cut a length of bias binding long enough to cover the straight edge.
When you look at your bias binding, you will see that one of the sides is slightly narrower than the other side. The narrow side is the side that we will stitch to the front of our fabric.
Unfold the narrow side of the bias binding and line up the raw edge of the tape with the edge of your fabric. Leave about 1” of the binding hanging off the end of the fabric when you start sewing. Stitch the binding to the fabric by stitching in the crease as shown in the second image above. This should be approximately 3/8” (1cm) from the edge of the fabric. Stitch the entire length of the straight edge and leave some extra binding at the end of the seam (about 1”) as we did at the other end.
Wrap the binding around to the back of your fabric. Now we are going to stitch the binding in place through all layers. Make sure that you are catching the binding on the underside. The folded edge of the binding on the underside should hide your original line of stitches.
Fold your pouch along the little clips you made earlier. You may want to press a crease along the fold before continuing.
Now we will bind the outer edge of the pouch. Cut a generous length of bias tape for the outer edge of the pouch.
Just as we did with the straight edge, we are going to stitch the narrow side of the binding to the top side of the pouch. We are also going to leave extra length of binding at the beginning and end of our stitching. Stitch the binding in place taking care as you stitch around the curves. The bias tape is flexible, allowing you to bend it around the curves. Do not pull on the binding. Simply let it gently bend around the curves.
This is what the pouch should look like at this stage.
The next step is different from when we bound the straight edge. We want to have a nice, finished edge at the start and end of the binding. To do this we fold the binding back on itself as shown in the second image above. Then we stitch through the binding very close to the edge of the fabric as shown in the third image above. Make sure to begin and end with a backstitch to make this seam secure. Now we can trim the excess binding (about a ¼” from our stitching). We repeat this process for the other end of the binding. THEN we wrap the binding around to the back of the pouch. Make sure to fully turn the ends of the binding that you have just stitched, so you have nice crisp corners as shown in the sixth image above.
Now we stitch the binding in place through all layers. Again, it is very important to make sure that you are catching the binding on the underside and that it is hiding the original line of stitching.
This is what your pouch should look like after completing the binding.
Gently press the binding nice and flat.
Fold the flap down over the body of the pouch and press in place.
Now it’s time to apply the snap. Using your fabric marker, mark the placement of the snap. We will stitch one side of the snap on the body of the pouch and one on the inside of the flap. Hand stitch securely in place.
Here is our finished pouch, ready to keep our scissors safe and out of reach. Can you think of other tools that could use a handy storage pouch like this? Do you have a friend who could use one? Or two?
1 thought on “Sweet and Simple Scissor Saver”
Thanks for this. Not too bulky to sew and perfect to take to sewing days.