| This project — also available from the Guild as a kit
— makes a drawstring pouch big enough to conceal a wallet
and other modern accessories. It features a green demi-sun on
a gold background, the heraldic badge that all people of the Kingdom
of the West have a right to bear
Materials
- Gold velveteen or other sturdy gold background fabric, cut
11 x 22 inches, or two 11-inch squares.
- Green felt or well-washed wool for the appliqué.
- About 2 yards of cord.
- Sewing thread to match the cord.
- Fabric for lining, the same size as background fabric.
- Two drawstrings, each about 20” long.
- Embroidery needle, scissors, embroidery frame or hoop, and
(optional) gluestick.
Instructions
Make a pattern for the appliqué by tracing the half-pattern
on this page onto folded paper, placing the fold along the dotted
line.
Tracing patterns onto felt is difficult because it’s soft
and fuzzy. This pattern also has long skinny bits, sharp points,
and wavy edges, which may be distorted either as you trace or
before you get them stitched down. So try this:
1. Don’t cut out your paper pattern yet. Lay it over the
felt, and either glue it down lightly with a gluestick, or baste
it a little inside the pattern lines. Then cut out both paper
and felt together on the lines.
2. Fold the background fabric crosswise, making two squarish
shapes, with the fold at the bottom. Measure up about 1 inch from
the fold and lightly mark a crosswise line. (Or use one of your
two squares and measure up about one and a half inches from the
bottom edge.)
3. Baste, pin, or glue the felt side (not the paper side!)
of the appliqué to the background, with the long straight
side along the line you measured. For “glue basting,”
use gluestick, a thin coat of white glue, or “light tack”
spray adhesive (spray the appliqué, not the background).
4. Be sure the appliqué is straight and centered. Carefully
peel off the paper. (Save it as a pattern if you’d like to
re-use it.)
 5.
Starting at one of the “valleys” between the sun points,
couch the cord with small, evenly spaced stitches on top of
the edge of the appliqué, using 1 strand of matching
sewing thread. Leave a “tail” of a couple of inches
of loose cord before your starting point. (Later, thread this
through a large-eyed needle and carefully “plunge” it
through to the back of the fabric.) Using a couched cord on the
edge of your appliqué “squeezes” the edge of
the appliquéd piece between the cord and the background
fabric, holding it more securely, as well as being decorative.
 6.
After you have couched the cord all the way around, you can add
another decorative cord outside the edge next to the first, or
additional embroidery, as you like. Plunge all cord ends when
you’re done.
Finishing the pouch
1. Fold the lining fabric in half as you did the velveteen and
sew up the sides, making a pouch. Fold the velveteen in half,
right sides together, and sew up the sides.
2. Turn the lining pouch right side out and slip it over
the inside-out velveteen pouch (like a pillowcase over
a pillow) so the seams match and the loose seam allowances are
hidden between the two layers. Turn under the top edges of both
the velveteen and the lining and sew them together with overcast
or machine stitching.
3. Turn the pouch right side out. Draw a line with a wash-out
marker 1/2 inch below the top edge, and backstitch or machine
stitch along this line all the way around the pouch. This forms
the casing for your drawstrings.
4. Carefully pull out a few stitches from each side seam just
below the top edge to make an opening for the cord. Thread one
drawstring through the opening and around the top, then knot the
ends together. Repeat from the other side seam with the other
drawstring. You’re done! |
