Cutlery & Plate Holder for Tramping

Every hiker has been here...
You are on a nice camping or tramping holiday, and eating time comes aroud. So you reach into you bag, and rummage around for the next 10 minutes trying to find your eating utensils. When you eventually find most of them, (your knife has seems to have wandered off), you are disgusted to discover that your plate has somehow picked up the majority of the dirt drifting around in your pack. You give it a good rinse, but then end up having to eat off a wet plate. The whole process begins to feel rather tedious and you are all the while thinking there must be a better way...
Well here is the solution for never having lost, dirty, or wet eating utensils again.

All you need is:
•A tea-towel
•General sewing equipment
•And a few measurements

First we need to figure out the correct size for the pouch. I used my camping plate as a guide for how large it needed to be. I decided on a square 9 inches x 9 inches.

Back Panel: 9inch x 9inch (cut 1)
Front Bottom Panel: 9inch x 8inch (cut 1)
Front Top Panel: 9inch x 2 inch (cut1)
Side Panels: 9inch x 2.5inch (cut 4)
Webbing Tab For Hanging: 2inch x 0.5inch (cut 1)

Note: I cut the 'front top panel' and the 'front bottom panel' on the neatened edge of the tea-towel so that I did not have to neaten it later.

Face the side panels right sides together along the short edges and sew them all together as shown in the pictures. You should end up with a loop. (I had not sewn up the last two edges in the picture). Neaten the seams with a zigzag stitch.

Line up the joins in the side panel pieces to the corners of the back panel. Position the tab on a diagonal across one of the corners so that it will be sandwedged between the back and side panels. Pin right sides facing together. Sew all the way around.

(This step is optional)
I used a pencil to carefully print my design on the front before going over it with a wash safe fabric pen.

Line the top front panel along the top edge of the back piece right sides facing and pin. Then line up the bottom front piece along the bottom of the back piece right sides facing and pin overlapping the top front piece as shown in the picture. Sew around all sides.

Turn the pouch right side out and check that everything is sewn up correctly. If so, turn inside out again and zigzag stitch all around the inside seams to prevent the fabric from fraying.

Pack your gear and head into the outdoors with the perfect pouch to keep all your eating utensils safe and clean. And as it is a tea-towel after all, it is the ideal thing to dry your cutlery after each meal. Happy tramping!