DIY Treat Pouch
I carry treats with me pretty much everywhere — you never know when a training opportunity is going to arise! My go-to treat pouch is this really simple little pouch with a plastic hook that you can clip into your pocket or waistband, and it works pretty well, but I thought it'd be fun to make my own pouch, especially for days when I don't feel like wearing jeans and I want something a more subtle and that doesn't have to hook into my waistband. I must say, I'm pretty pleased with the results! I'm sure I will tinker with this pouch and try to make it better in it's next incarnation, but if you'd like to make one too, here's how I did it:
1. A long piece of fabric (or a strap of some kind)
2. A rectangular piece of fabric (around 10" x 14")
3. A sewing machine (or a ton of patience)
4. Scissors
5. Pins
Depending on how wide you want your strap, cut the long fabric into a thin strip. I cut mine at about 3" to end up with a 1" strap. Then, fold in and pin each side evenly. Hem each side, and then fold them together, tuck in the ends so they look neat, too, and sew the whole strap, following along the original hemlines. Boom, you have a strap.
To shape the pouch, you're going to fold the rectangle in half length-wise. Then, fold the top flap down about an inch and a half, and then fold the bottom flap up to meet the edge of the folded flap to create a little envelope. Having the top flap folded over will keep your treats from falling out too easily, but since you won't have to open and close a zipper or cinch and un-cinch a drawstring, it will give you easy access to your treats. Here's are step-by-step photos for folding your pouch — I recommend playing with the final shape to make sure you like it before sewing.
Now that you have your final shape planned, you can go ahead and sew the right side where the two edges meet on your first fold, as well as the top and bottom. Then, you're going to want to decide where to position the pouch on the strap. I went ahead and pinned the pouch's final shape together, then tied the strap around my waist so I could decide where I liked it.
Holding the place with my fingers, I took the strap off, pinned the pouch to it, and tied it on once more to make sure I'd pinned it straight. Then I sewing the pouch to strap, sewing along the top and bottom of the strap where it had previously been sewn together.
Finally, tuck the top top, and the fold the bottom up, and sew the sides together! I found that my fabric was getting pretty thick by the time I reached this step, and I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to sew it all together, but I started from the bottom, where it was thinner, and sewed up to the thick top part and it went through fine!
And waa-laa! Your treat pouch is complete! You can also be less of a dork and let your shirt hang over it instead of tying it over your shirt, which is what I did in real life, but for these photos I felt the need to show off my handiwork! Koa was, as usual unimpressed. Until there was stinky freeze dried cod in the pouch...
What you will need:
1. A long piece of fabric (or a strap of some kind)2. A rectangular piece of fabric (around 10" x 14")
3. A sewing machine (or a ton of patience)
4. Scissors
5. Pins
Step 1: Making the strap
Technically, this part is optional. You could just buy a strap with a buckle, or reuse something. But if you're making it yourself, the first thing to do is get an idea of where you want to wear the pouch, and measure that part of your waist. Make sure to give yourself extra room so you can tie it when you're done. The longest piece of fabric I could find in my scrap pile was about 45" so that's what I used. I would have like something a tiny bit longer so I could tie it in a bow, but I may add on some little metal loops (which I recently discovered are called Double D rings) to use to tighten it.
Step 2: Making the pouch
As I've mentioned before, I'm very tactile, so when deciding what I wanted my pouch to look like, the best method for me was playing with the fabric and folding it into shape to decide what I liked. Once I did that, I hemmed my rectangular scrap to about 13" x 9".
To shape the pouch, you're going to fold the rectangle in half length-wise. Then, fold the top flap down about an inch and a half, and then fold the bottom flap up to meet the edge of the folded flap to create a little envelope. Having the top flap folded over will keep your treats from falling out too easily, but since you won't have to open and close a zipper or cinch and un-cinch a drawstring, it will give you easy access to your treats. Here's are step-by-step photos for folding your pouch — I recommend playing with the final shape to make sure you like it before sewing.
Step 3: Putting it all together
Finally, tuck the top top, and the fold the bottom up, and sew the sides together! I found that my fabric was getting pretty thick by the time I reached this step, and I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to sew it all together, but I started from the bottom, where it was thinner, and sewed up to the thick top part and it went through fine!
And waa-laa! Your treat pouch is complete! You can also be less of a dork and let your shirt hang over it instead of tying it over your shirt, which is what I did in real life, but for these photos I felt the need to show off my handiwork! Koa was, as usual unimpressed. Until there was stinky freeze dried cod in the pouch...