DIY Dr.Who pouch

Now while I have a fondness for Dr. Who, I am not the one who is a fan. It's actually my youngest brother who is. Now, since my family recently moved much too far away, I wanted to make him something for the upcoming school year. What I came up with was a pencil case designed like the top of the Tardis that I made entirely out of left over material from previous projects.

 

Materials and sizing:

• 2x dark blue (9.5" x 6.5")
• Black strip (9.5" x 2")
• 2x White (2.5" x 4.5")
• 2x inner fabric (9.5" x 6")
• 9.25" zipper (dark blue to blend with fabric)
• Fusible interfacing

 

I used 2 different pieces for the inside (yellow swirls and starry sky)

 Instructions:

1. Cut pieces as needed and iron everything so it lays nice and flat (this is really the first step for any project)

2. Now, take one of the blue pieces, fold in half, and near the bottom (approx. .5" from the bottom) draw out a square measuring 2.25" x 4.25" as shown (these will be the windows).

3. Next, you're going to start in the middle of the square and cut through both pieces of fabric (as shown) so both windows are exactly the same:

4. Lay flat and iron flaps towards wrong side of fabric (trim as needed/ if you want)

Back

Front

5. Next, take each of your white rectangles and sew them in place (pin on wrong side and, carefully, sew into place using dark blue or black thread)

Keep in mind that the rectangle and your open spot are only .25" different in size

When you're finished, your front should look something like this

6.  Taking your black strip, iron top and bottom raw edges underneath fabric and sew into place approx. 1" from top (black thread)

7. Now for the fancy stuff: Using black thread, sew straight lines across the windows, stopping just before hitting the blue fabric.

8. This step I had quite a bit of difficulty with. I started out using my chalk pencil to write out "Police Box" onto the black strip. Then, using the sewing machine setting that makes the fabric do this /\/\/\/ (really technical, I know), I started sewing along my letters. As for the "Public call", I opted to had stitch.

I had the most difficulty with the "O"

That's as close as it's going to get, I suppose

9. If you've made it this far - congratulations! You've made it through the most difficult parts of this project! Next up is assembling the whole thing. First though, iron your interfacing onto your front pieces (one being just blue and the other being your lovely Tardis).

10. Taking small pieces of scrap from your blue and your zipper, sew together as shown (watch out for the zipper metal!).

11. Attaching the zipper: Taking your Tardis front and one piece of inner fabric, right sides facing, sandwich your zipper between the two of them on the inside:

Sewing with the zipper closed, start at one end and sew 3/4 of the length, as close to the zipper as you can, then back stitch. Unzip zipper past the point you just sewed. Continuing sewing along same line until you have sewed the length of the zipper. This way you should have a fairly straight line that is nice and close to the actual zipper teeth. This is what it should look like once finished with this step:

12. Repeat with your other outer and inner fabrics, keeping in mind that what you've just sewn will now be the piece being sandwiched between them.

13. Making sure your zipper is 1/2 - 3/4 of the way open, pin your outer fabrics (right side facing) together and your inner fabrics (right side facing) together:

14. Starting at the bottom of your inner fabric (in the above picture: left side at blue pin in the upper corner), sew around the outer edge of the entire piece. BE CAREFUL when sewing across the zipper. I may have mentioned this before but every project I have done that required a zipper, I have broken a needle. In another project very similar to this one, the breaking of the needle included the tip breaking off and shooting into my eye. My boyfriend now requires me to wear his lab goggles when I'm sewing). Back to the current project, be sure to leave a small opening so that you can flip at the end.

It may be hard to see since I was using white thread

15. Flip, iron, hand sew your opening close, iron again.

I perhaps didn't leave a very big opening to flip but it worked out in the end

You're done! Yay!!!

Difficulty: Advanced beginner

Time: 2 hours
Price: $0 (I only used scraps so it may cost a few $$ if everything is new)

A week later I made a similar pouch for a young boy who loves Pokemon and YuGiOh. I'm not quite as proud of it but here it is:

The face of Pikachu

YuGiOh hair (I'm not all that familiar with the show)

 This pouch was a little different because I included dividers inside to organize playing cards:

This project was also $0 since it was made entirely of scraps that I had laying around. It was during this project that I tried losing an eye - most likely due to trying to speed through the process and make this in under an hour. What I learned: Take your time and enjoy the process of making your own creation, no matter what level of DIYing you're at.

Until next time patient readers, allonsy live long and prosper!