Last minute handmade gift (even the kids can join in)

It’s only 4 more sleeps until Christmas! We are celebrating Christmas with some friends and their children. I usually make them a piece of clothing but my business has been so busy this year that I haven’t had time to think about it.

Then scrolling through Instagram, I came across the free Fortune Cookie Pouch. This is a free pattern by Little Moo Designs. The pattern (and other quick freebie patterns can be found here).

This pattern is perfect for a few different reasons.

It’s super quick. There is essentially 4 seams in this pattern. My kids took less than 15 minutes to make them with the sewing machine speed on slow. I would easily make them in less time than this.
It’s a scrap buster. I went through my box of larger scraps to pick out favourites. I also found zips that had been gifted to me.
The construction is mostly simple enough for beginners. My 7 and 9 year old constructed most of it themselves. Besides generally keeping a watch over them, I helped topstitch the second side of the zip which is tricky to manoeuvre under the foot at the closed end.
The size is perfect to fit a small gift inside. We found $5 sets of Lego but you could also include small figurines, cars or stationary. We took the Lego out of it’s box to fit it in.

As far as interfacing goes, as I wasn’t using cork, I used mid – heavy weight interfacing on the outer piece of fabric. This choice has still allowed the pouch to hold it’s ‘fortune cookie’ shape without being too difficult for my kids to sew.

A mistake in construction made us do a little cute hack. My boy accidently sewed the bottom seam on the outside. rather than unpick, we covered it in double fold bias tape. If I was making these pouches as a more formal gift for adults (maybe teachers next year), I would cover the inner seam with bias tape.

This pattern is perfect if you are running short on fabric (or money to buy more fabric), time or simply want the kids to help you. It would be perfect when the kids are invited to birthday parties or for Easter as well.