Horsie Mama: Clean Seams and a Flap - a Pony Pouch Tutorial

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Clean Seams and a Flap - a Pony Pouch Tutorial

Several people have asked how I made the clean seams and overlapping flap in my pony pouches without having the seam curve under.

Like this one - see how the flap is turned inward by the seam?

This is much better, and it is really easy to do. First, cut out a piece of fabric. For a standard Traditional-sized pony pouch, I cut it 16x28 inches.

Because I do not like to use velcro, I make a longer flap, one that will stay folded down without needing a fastener of some sort. (While there is a way to put the scratchy side of velcro away from the model, there is still a risk that contact could be made with my models so I never use velcro.)

Taking a seam gauge, I set it about 1/4 inch away from the corner of one edge of the wrong side of the fabric.

Then I use a chalk pencil to mark across the 5 inch mark and then draw a line from that mark down to the edge of the fabric. Be sure to do this on the other side of the seam gauge. This will be my cutting line after the seams are stitched.

I do the same thing on the other corner. Now I have two cutting marks, one on either side of the 16 inch edge.

Right sides together, I stitch a quarter inch seam all along the pony pouch leaving an opening to turn the fabric right side out.

I also use those chalk marks as a sewing guide, stitching 1/4 inch alongside them.

This is how the stitching lines look on the fleece side. See how I have made a flap?

Again using the chalk lines as a guide, I cut on them as I trim my seams all around the pony pouch.

These next couple of steps are very important and skipping them will make turning the fabric right side out difficult.

Take some small, sharp scissors and clip the angle between the stitching line and the edge of the fabric. (The scissors are placed to point to that cut.) This allows the fabric to move and turn more easily.

Then I carefully trim the fabric down some in that little angle.

It may not look pretty, but it will be on the inside of the pouch so no one will ever see it. And, it will make your finished pony pouch lay flat and look much more polished.

Turn your fabric right side out. After I do that, I insert this tool and use the rounded end to push the fabric out in all the corners, including the flap corners, so that they start to lay flat. (This tool comes in bags of polyfil and is used for stuffing pillows and crafts. You can use any small rounded tool. Your finger, too.)

Now the corners are crisp and sharp.

I iron both sides of the pony pouch. The flap looks good and is 5 inches - long enough to fold over and stay folded.

The opening where I turned the fabric right side out (where the scissors are pointing) needs to be closed. Some people do it by hand, but I find it easy to catch when I stitch up the sides.

I bring the bottom up and match the bottom corners with the flap edges.

I put a pin in to show where I will stitch the sides together. It's about midway between the edge of the side and the edge of the flap. This is because we now have four layers of fabric in this new seam, and when we turn them, that seam will be bulky. Leaving that space allows room for the bulk after turning.