Camp Sew N Sew - portfolio project

It's that time again. This is year 4 for Camp Sew N Sew at my church. This year we are going to make one simple project per day, rather than a week-long project, and here is one: a simple porfolio.

Materials: 

one 13x10 piece of fabric

one 13x10 piece of coordinating fabric for inside

two 13x10 pieces of medium wt interfacing

one 13x14 piece of fabric for inside pocket

one 13x14 piece of medium wt interfacing

one 3x12 piece of fabric for outside pocket

one 3x12 piece of interfacing

remants or bias binding to finish outside pocket & lower edge

Directions:

1. Apply interfacing to outside-fabric, inside-fabric, inside-pocket and outside-pocket, according to interfacing instructions.
2. Fold outside-pocket in half lengthwise, wrong sides together and press. It is now 3x6.
3. Sew outside-pocket to outside-fabric aligning it about 2 inches from the right edge of the outside-fabric. You need to sew only the long sides down.
4. Sew binding to the long raw edges of the outside-pocket. Note that the bottom of this pocket is still open.
5. Fold the inside-pocket wrong sides together so that it becomes 13x7. Press.
6. Align the 13 inch raw edge of the inside pocket with the 13 inch edge of the inside fabric. Sew along the two outer edges using about 1/4 inch seam allowance. 
7. Place outside-fabric and inside-fabric wrong sides together and sew along the top and two sides using 1/2 inch seam allowances. Trim corners, turn and press. The lower edge is still unfinished. 
8. Measure 5.75 inches from each 8.5 inch side and draw two parallel lines with chalk. Top-stitch on the chalked lines. This creates a way to easily close and open the portfolio. See Figure 1 below where this stitching shows as vertical lines.
9. Now stitch bias binding or remnants to the lower edge of the portfolio: With portfolio open, outside up, align binding with unfinished lower edge, wrong sides together. Stitch binding to portfolio, close to the edge, around 1/4 inch seam allowance. Turn and press the binding into place on the inside, turning under the raw edge. Now either top-stitch or hand-stitch the binding to the inside of the portfolio. A zigzag or decorative stitch works great here too.

Figure 1

Finished size: 8.75 x 5.5 inches when closed. Fits 5x8 pad of paper. I added a little sashiko to the pocket trim on the outside.