Waist Purse with Pockets

Necessity is the mother of invention, and I decided I needed a Waist Purse with Pockets. I’ll be teaching at the CreativFestival soon, and didn’t want to deal with a “real purse”. Clipping something around my waist to hold my papers, phone, wallet and lipstick made sense, so here’s what I came up with:

Finished size is 10 1/2″ wide and 6 1/2 inches high.

Make your pattern:

Cut a piece of pattern paper 11 inches wide by 40 inches long. Fold it in half longways and use a small plate, bowl or container to trace a curve for the top. Cut through both layers, then unfold.

Using a ruler, mark both edges, measuring from the straight end: 12 1/2 inches, 18 inches, 24 inches, 30 inches, and 36 inches.

At the 36 inch, just mark the edges. At 30 inches, draw a line and call it “A”. At 24 inches, draw a line and call it “B”. At 18 inches, draw a line and call it “C”. At the 12 1/2” draw a line and call it “D”.

Pin the paper to your lining fabric, cut out and transfer all the lines and marks to the right side of the fabric.

Press:

With wrong sides of fabric together, fold at lines “D” and “B” then press in a crease.

With the right side of the fabric facing up, bring the “D” fold up to meet the “B” fold, but just 1/4 inch below it. Then bring both folds up so “B” meets the mark at 36″. The lines at “C” and “A” will fold to the inside.

Press well and pin to hold all layers together. This folded lining piece becomes the pattern for the outer fabric and fusible interfacing. Cut 1 outer fabric and 1 fusible interfacing. Fuse interfacing to wrong side of outer fabric.

Sew:

With right sides together, and using 1/4” seam, sew all around leaving a 4 1/2 inch opening along the bottom for turning. Clip corners and curves. ( I use pinking shears for trimming curves) Press the seam allowances at the bottom toward the wrong side of fabric, then turn. Poke out the corners, smooth the curve at the top, and press well.

Sew across the bottom edge all the way across with the outer fabric on top to close the opening. Stitch close to the edge and pay attention to your thread colours.

Fold up the bottom over the pockets so the straight edge just covers the upper edge of the pockets. See the photo below. Pin, then sew along the sides to form a wallet, continuing the stitching around the top flap curve as well as across the bottom.

Attach snaps to the flap and the other half to the front.I used a length of nylon webbing with a nylon clip for the waist strap, inserting the ends between the layers before sewing up the side seams.