DIY Notion Pouch: How to Make a Folding Tray Pouch for Your Crafting Tools

If you’ve ever dug through a tangled pile of scissors, seam rippers, thimbles, and marking tools mid-project, you already know the pain. Crafting is supposed to be relaxing and creative, but a disorganized workspace can turn a pleasant afternoon into a frustrating search mission. That’s where a handmade notion pouch comes in — specifically, a folding tray pouch that opens flat to give you a bird’s-eye view of every tool you own.

This type of pouch is a favorite among quilters, sewists, embroiderers, and mixed-media artists because it functions as both a carrying case and a workstation in one. When it’s closed, it looks like a tidy zip-up bag. When you unzip it and fold it open, the sides drop down to create a shallow tray that keeps everything visible, organized, and within arm’s reach. You can take it to a workshop, a craft fair, or a friend’s house and have your entire toolkit set up in seconds.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to sew your own folding tray notion pouch from scratch. The instructions cover fabric selection, cutting, interfacing, zipper installation, and final assembly — step by step, with enough detail that even a confident beginner can follow along. You’ll also find tips on customizing the size and adding pockets or elastic tool holders so the finished pouch suits your specific crafting needs.

What Is a Notion Pouch?

The word “notion” in the sewing world refers to the small tools and supplies that aren’t fabric itself — things like pins, needles, seam rippers, rotary cutters, tape measures, thread snips, chalk markers, stilettos, and beeswax. A notion pouch is any bag or case designed to keep these items organized and portable.

A folding tray pouch takes the concept further. Instead of a regular zippered bag where tools pile on top of each other, the folding tray style unfolds completely flat. The outer shell becomes a tray with low walls, and everything inside is instantly accessible. Some designs include an inner panel with pockets, loops, and elastic slots so you can assign a specific home to each tool. Others are open and simple, letting you customize the interior yourself.

The design is sometimes called a felix pouch, a roll-out tray bag, or a crafter’s mat pouch, depending on the maker and the community. Whatever you call it, the principle is the same: a portable, self-contained workspace that opens in seconds.

Materials You’ll Need

Before you sit down at your sewing machine, gather everything on this list. Having your materials prepped and ready will make the whole process smoother.

For the outer shell and inner lining, you’ll need two pieces of exterior fabric and two pieces of lining fabric, each measuring approximately 14 inches wide by 10 inches tall. These measurements will produce a finished pouch that’s roughly 13 inches wide by 9 inches tall when closed — generous enough for a full set of sewing notions but still compact enough to tuck into a project bag.

For interfacing, you’ll want a medium-weight fusible fleece or foam stabilizer for the outer panels. This is what gives the tray its structure when it unfolds and keeps the walls from flopping over. Pellon 987F Fusible Fleece or Bosal In-R-Form are both excellent choices. Cut two pieces of interfacing to match your exterior fabric pieces.

You’ll also need one 14-inch zipper for the top opening. A nylon coil zipper in a coordinating or contrasting color works beautifully here, and you can use a zipper stop or simply sew across the end if you’re working with a longer zipper cut to size.

For the interior organization panel — optional but highly recommended — cut one piece of lining fabric measuring 14 inches wide by 6 inches tall. This will form the pockets and tool loops on one inner side.

Additional supplies include a quarter-inch seam allowance marker or masking tape for your machine’s throat plate, matching thread, four to six inches of ribbon or twill tape for a zipper pull tab, and any elastic or ribbon you want to use for tool loops. Woven cotton, canvas, linen blends, and laminated cotton all work well for the exterior. For the lining, a tightly woven quilting cotton makes cutting and sewing easier.

Choosing the Right Fabric

Fabric selection matters more in this project than in many others because the pouch needs to hold its shape as a tray. Avoid anything too drapey or slippery for the exterior — chiffon, silk, and jersey aren’t the right call here. What you want is something with body.

Quilting cotton paired with fusible fleece creates a soft but structured result. Canvas and duck cloth are naturally stiffer and produce a more rigid tray wall. Laminated cotton is a great choice if you want the inside of the tray to wipe clean — invaluable if you’re storing anything that might leave residue, like oil-based markers or fabric glue.

For the lining, go with something that contrasts nicely with your exterior. A solid color or small-scale print will make the interior feel clean and easy to look at when the tray is open. Since the lining is the surface you’ll see most often when working, choose something that makes you happy.

Fat quarters are often just the right amount of fabric for a single pouch, which means this is also a great scrap-buster project. If you have a beloved piece of fabric you’ve been saving for the right use, this is it.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step One: Interface the Exterior Panels

Fuse your interfacing to the wrong side of both exterior fabric panels, following the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific product. Most fusible fleeces require a damp pressing cloth and medium heat. Press firmly and hold for about ten seconds per section, then allow the panels to cool completely before moving them. Once the interfacing is bonded, your exterior panels should feel substantially stiffer and more padded than before.

If you’re using foam stabilizer instead of fleece, you may need to baste it in place rather than fuse it, since not all foam products are heat-tolerant. Check the product packaging before applying iron heat directly.

Step Two: Prepare the Interior Organization Panel (Optional)

If you want pockets and tool loops on the inside of your pouch, now is the time to make them. Take your 14-inch by 6-inch lining panel and fold it in half lengthwise so it’s now 14 inches wide and 3 inches tall, with the wrong sides together. Press the fold with an iron.

Place this folded strip along the bottom edge of one lining panel, raw edges aligned. Pin it in place. Now decide how you want to divide the interior. You might want a wide pocket on one side for a small ruler or seam gauge, several narrow slots for thread snips and scissors, and a few elastic loops for thimbles and a seam ripper. Mark your divisions lightly with a water-soluble marker.

For elastic loops, cut pieces of quarter-inch elastic to roughly 2.5 to 3 inches each. Fold each piece in half, tuck the ends into the folded pocket strip at your marked points, and pin them with the loop pointing downward (toward the fold). When you stitch across the division lines, you’ll catch the elastic ends and the loops will pop up into position.

Stitch along your division lines from the top edge of the pocket strip all the way down to the bottom edge, backstitching at each end. You now have a custom tool organizer panel ready to be sewn into the pouch.

Step Three: Attach the Zipper

Take one exterior panel and one lining panel. Place them right sides together, sandwiching the zipper along the top edge. The zipper should be face-down on the exterior fabric, with the tape aligned to the top raw edge of both fabrics.

Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine, stitch along the top edge with a quarter-inch seam allowance. Flip the fabric panels away from the zipper (they’ll now be back-to-back, wrong sides together), press well, and topstitch close to the zipper edge. This topstitching keeps the fabric from getting caught in the zipper pull as you open and close the pouch.

Repeat this process with the second exterior and lining panels on the other side of the zipper tape.

When you’re finished, you should have what looks like a fabric tube with a zipper running along one long side. The exterior fabric is on the outside, the lining is on the inside, and both are attached to the zipper tape.

Step Four: Open the Zipper Partway

This is an easy step to forget, and skipping it means you’ll have to rip out stitches later. Before sewing the pouch closed, unzip the zipper about halfway. You need this opening to turn the pouch right side out after sewing.

Step Five: Sew the Side and Bottom Seams

Rearrange your fabric tube so the exterior panels are right sides together and the lining panels are right sides together. The zipper will be nestled between the two layers at the top. The seam where the zipper is attached should be pressed toward the lining on both sides to reduce bulk.

Pin along both side edges and the bottom edge of the exterior. Stitch with a half-inch seam allowance. Then stitch along both sides and the bottom of the lining panels, leaving a four-inch gap unsewn in the center of the lining’s bottom edge. This gap is your turning hole.

Step Six: Box the Corners (Optional but Recommended)

Boxing the corners creates the tray’s depth and structure. With the pouch still inside out, pinch each corner so the side seam and bottom seam align on top of each other, forming a point. The seam allowances will be visible on the inside.

Measure 1.5 inches from the tip of each point and draw a line across with a fabric marker. Sew along this line, then trim the corner to a quarter-inch seam allowance. Repeat on all four corners of the exterior and all four corners of the lining. This step is what allows the tray walls to stand up when the pouch is open.

Step Seven: Turn and Close

Reach through the zipper opening and pull the entire pouch through the turning gap in the lining. It will look crumpled and strange at first — just keep working it through until the exterior is fully right-side-out. Push the corners out neatly with a blunt point turner or the eraser end of a pencil.

Now close the gap in the lining by folding the raw edges under by a quarter inch and either machine-stitching it shut close to the edge or slip-stitching it by hand. Tuck the lining back inside the pouch, press everything well, and topstitch around the top edge if you’d like a neat, polished finish.

Step Eight: Add a Zipper Pull Tab

Thread a small loop of ribbon or twill tape through the hole in the zipper pull and fold it in half, then stitch the ends together close to the zipper pull. This gives you a larger, easier-to-grab tab — especially helpful if you’re storing the pouch inside a larger bag and need to pull it out by the zipper.

How to Use Your Folding Tray Pouch

Using the pouch is even simpler than making it. Load your tools into the interior pockets and loops, zip it shut, and slip it into whatever bag you’re carrying. When you arrive at your destination, unzip the pouch completely and lay it flat on your work surface. The walls of the tray will drop to the sides, creating a shallow, padded tray with all your notions visible at once.

When you’re done, just fold the tray back up, zip it closed, and go. Nothing falls out, nothing gets lost, and nothing is jammed into a heap.

Customization Ideas

One of the best things about this project is how easily you adapt it to your specific craft. Embroiderers might line the inside of the tray with velvet fabric so needles can be parked safely during use. Knitters and crocheters might scale the pouch up by a few inches and add a loop sized for a crochet hook roll. Quilters often add a small pinchusion attached to a ribbon so it sits inside the tray without rolling away.

You can also scale the dimensions up or down significantly. A 10-inch by 7-inch version makes a sweet mini pouch for a single project’s worth of notions. A 20-inch by 12-inch version becomes a full crafting station suitable for storing every tool you might need for an all-day class.

Adding an external zippered pocket to the back of the pouch is another popular modification. Simply sew a small zipper pocket onto the exterior back panel before assembling the rest of the pouch. This pocket is perfect for extra zipper pulls, small receipts, business cards, or anything else you want accessible without opening the main tray.

Tips for a Clean, Professional Finish

Pressing at every stage of this project makes a bigger difference than almost anything else. Each time you open a seam or flip fabric over the zipper, reach for your iron before reaching for your pins. Well-pressed fabric is easier to sew accurately, and the finished result looks shop-quality rather than homemade.

Use a zipper foot throughout the zipper installation steps, even when you think you might be able to get away with a regular presser foot. The zipper foot lets you stitch much closer to the zipper teeth, which keeps the fabric from puckering and the zipper from catching.

When cutting, take your time and use sharp scissors or a rotary cutter with a fresh blade. Crooked cuts lead to crooked seams, which lead to a tray that doesn’t sit flat. A cutting mat, quilting ruler, and rotary cutter will make quick, precise work of all your rectangles.

Finally, if you’re new to installing zippers, don’t be intimidated. The method used in this tutorial — where you sew the zipper between the exterior and lining panels before assembling the bag — is one of the most forgiving approaches available. There’s no exposed zipper tape to hide and no awkward hand stitching. It looks complex from the outside but is actually quite straightforward once you’ve done it once.

Why Make Your Own Instead of Buying One?

Handmade notion pouches are available from independent sellers on Etsy and in fabric shops, so it’s fair to wonder whether making your own is worth the effort. The answer depends on what you value. A purchased pouch might cost anywhere from twenty to sixty dollars depending on the maker and the materials. Making your own from stash fabric costs almost nothing beyond the zipper and interfacing.

More importantly, making your own means you get exactly the interior layout you need. Commercial pouches are designed for an imaginary average crafter. Your pouch can be designed for you — your specific tools, your specific workflow, your preferred organization system. The satisfaction of reaching for a tool during a project and finding it exactly where you expect it is something a purchased pouch can approximate but can’t quite match.

There’s also the simple pleasure of using a beautiful, handmade object you created yourself. Every time you unzip this pouch at the start of a project, you’ll have a small moment of pride. That’s worth something.

Final Thoughts

A DIY folding tray notion pouch is the kind of project that improves your crafting life in a quiet but significant way. It takes a couple of hours to sew, uses a modest amount of fabric, and produces something you’ll reach for every single time you sit down to create. Whether you’re heading to a quilting class, setting up at a craft fair, or simply trying to bring some order to your sewing table at home, this pouch is one of those tools that makes everything else work better.

Start with the basic version outlined in this tutorial, then adjust as you learn what you need. Add an extra pocket here, swap in different elastic there, try a laminated lining next time. After one or two versions, you’ll have a pouch that fits your crafting life so well it’ll feel like it was always there.

Now clear off a bit of space, pull out your favorite fabric, and let’s get sewing.