This is a little pouch I decided to make because I needed something to hold my lady's Valentine's Day gift. It's very simple to make, and took me less than an hour from start to finish.

Step 1: Materials

You'll need the following:

- Some sort of fabric (I used an old shirt the first time I did this)
- Needle and thread
- Safety Pin
- A Drawstring/Ribbon (I used the handle from a shopping bag)
- Scissors
- A Ruler/measuring device
- A pen/pencil that will write easily on fabric

Optional:

- Decorations!
- Markers and whatnot for decorating.

Step 2: Measure, Cut, and Mark

First off, figure out how large a pouch you'll be making (I made mine ~10cm wide x 13cm high).

Measure out a rectangle with side lengths of (width+1cm) x [(2*height) + (4cm)]
In this case my rectangle was 11cm wide x 30cm high.

The additional bit of fabric is there for seams and for making the lip that the string will pass through (you might not need to add 4cm depending on the thickness of your drawstring, but for me this worked). Also, if you want a wider bottom on the finished product, you'll want to add a few more cm to the height.

Now cut out the rectangle carefully.

Once you've cut out the rectangle, place your drawstring at the top of the fabric and fold the fabric over it to make the lip. Mark how far down the fabric has to go so you know where to stop sewing the sides.

Step 3: Start Sewing

Let me start by saying that I don't know how to sew. I looked on wikihow for sewing tips and found that doing a backstitch is really easy, so that's what I used (I think, or I made something up).

You'll want to sew up the sides to the place you marked (for the lip). Remember, you're sewing up the inside of the bag! I used fabric that was the same colour on both sides, but if you use something that has two different colours, make sure you're sewing the part that will be inside the bag.

Step 4: Make the Lip

Fold down the top bit of fabric and make the lip for your drawstring to pass through. You'll need to sew it in place, be careful how you do this! If you sew too high up, you won't have room for the string, so you'll want to hug the bottom edge of the lip, make sure you are still passing through both pieces of fabric.

I wanted it to look nice on the outside, so I had to stitch it a bit differently (it was still a backstitch, but I started on the outside of the bag, rather than the inside.

Also, make sure you don't pass through all 4 layers, you want to stitch one side at a time (2 layers of fabric at a time).

Step 5: Thread the Drawstring

Now that you're done sewing, time to attach the drawstring.

This was really easy to do, once I figured out how. I used a safety pin (which I passed through one end of the string) to guide the string through. Before I started threading, I made sure the opposite end of my string was knotted so it wouldn't go all the way through.

Once you've threaded it through both sides you're done! Just flip the inside-out pouch so that you've got the right side out and you're good to go.