in sewing

Quilted Kobo Pouch

Project details
Achievement
Sewing a zippered pouch without any hand sewing or treachery
Pattern
MADE Everyday’s zipper pouch tutorial
Dimensions
8x8"
Materials
  • Shinkansen quilting cotton purchased in Tokyo
  • Yellow quilting cotton from Joann

I’ve been traveling with my Kobo eReader in the strawberry marker pouch I made, which is decidedly summery and only fits the Kobo in one direction. So I decided to make another zippered pouch!

My hand holding an 8 inch square quilted pouch. The top half of the square is a bright saffron yellow, and the bottom is a navy cotton with a printed pattern of Japanese bullet trains in a simple illustrated style

Way back in 2017 I bought a few fabrics in Tokyo and took awhile to actually use my stash. One of these was a quilting cotton printed with a Shinkansen pattern. The Shinkansen is a network of bullet trains across Japan. I’d still like to use this fabric for something topical—maybe something to hold a passport or rail pass in—but I had plenty and decided to use it for this pouch!

A closeup of the shinkansen fabric, with the packaged yellow zipper laid on top of it

Planning

My initial plan was to make the outside of this pouch half navy fabric and half trains. I don’t know if I had misplaced, used, or never had the navy fabric I was thinking of, but the navy was replaced by a bright yellow that incidentally matched the zipper I had on hand.

I decided to make the pouch 8x8" to account for: (the long side of the Kobo Libra 2 + the thickness of the Kobo + a little extra space for fabric loft and crooked seams)

Outer fabric

To make the outside of the pouch, I:

  • Cut 2 pieces each of trains and yellow fabric, 9 x 4¾"
  • Sewed the yellow to the trains with a ¼" seam allowance
  • Cut cotton batting and backing fabric to 11x11"
  • Quilted the whole sandwich in 1" intervals from the center seam
A sandwich of the quilted fabric on top of batting and back fabric

The idea with the quilting pattern was that the horizontal lines would mimic the directionality of the trains.

Pouch construction

Whenever I make a zippered pouch, I follow MADE Everyday’s zipper pouch tutorial: clear, simple instructions at 13 minutes including intro and outro.

The top of the pouch splayed wide, with the zipper sewn in down the center

The challenge I always face when making lined zippered pouches—particularly when I’m using quilted outer fabric—is that the sandwich gets so THICK. Sewing through the side seam near the zipper was always pretty sketchy.

And then. I learned what that dang black button on the side of the presser foot is for! I followed the advice of the linked video on this project and was able to get through that thick patch much more easily.

My hand peeling back the top of the pouch to show that the lining is also made from the shinkansen fabric, against a bright orange background

After I turned the pouch right-side out, there was still a lot of strain on some of those stitches. My mom’s advice for next time was to go back over that area (before turning it out) with the triple stitch on my machine. I say next time because I mostly employ a “just keep swimming” strategy with craft projects, for better or worse. 🐠

The moment of truth

My Kobo fits nicely! I really love the square aspect ratio of the pouch, and I’m glad I gave it a little extra padding. 💛

A Kobo peeks out the top of the pouch, against a bright orange background

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