Above you see the three pieces that will make up the bag. I chose a nice smoking related fabric for the outside, and a complementary brown solid for the inside. The bat is a piece of Warm & Natural cotton bat.

In this picture, the pieces have been laid together ready to begin sewing. The bat is on the bottom, then the liner, and finally the outside piece, with the print side DOWN. Note: If you are also using a print for the liner, then you will want the two print sides together, just as when you assemble a quilt block.

These next four pictures show the basic assembly of what I call "the tube". Sew each edge of the set together, as shown here. I back tacked the start and finish of each seam, but with the rolled top, it probably isn't necessary. I'm just deeply into overkill...

This picture shows beginning to turn the tube inside out. Put your fingers between the outside fabric and the liner, work down to the end and pull the whole thing through.

The whole tube has now been pulled through, making it "right side out".

Here the edges have been carefully finger pressed flat and fully to the outside.

Note that in the sewing of the side seams, the ends have become uneven. I carefully trimmed them square. See next photo.

The process of rolling three layers to produce the top edge will inevitably cause the layers to shift. Here I have sewn a seam across an end to stabilize them. Note that Idid not start or end at the edges... just across the open center section. Obviously, yoou will want to do this at both ends.

Here I have finger rolled the top over once, about 1/4". The seam you see between my fingers is the stabilizing seam shown in the last picture. I have not yet done the final seam on the top edge.

Okay... now I have rolled the top edge over again, making the double roll... still no seam.

This seam is your toughest challenge. The edges are nine layers thick, and three of those layers are bat! Very few home machines are going to be happy starting a seam of this thickness. You have to outsmart them. Start the seam 1/4 of the way in. Go forward three or four stitches, then reverse and sew out to the back edge. You will have to use hand pressure to pull the work forward, but at least for me, it worked. Once you come to the edge, end reverse and start forward again. With the fabric compressed and sewn, I had no problem going forward from the edge now. Sew to the opposite edge. Going forward and pulling a little from behind, I was able to sew through all of the thicknesses.

Here is a finished top edge. Note that the seam is pretty close to the bottom of the roll. This roll is pretty stiff, producing the "spring open" effect I mentined. There is a "hole" through the top, so you could use a bodkin and feed a pair of draw strings through, but at this size, and with this thickness of top edge, they would not work well. In a larger size, this would be OK. You could also, if you know a drawstring is needed, cut your pieces to allow for a deeper, less dense top roll, or even cut the outside and liner pieces extra long, so that the top roll that held the drawstring was not having to contend with the bat.

The final step is to fold the whole piece over, aligning the tops, and top stitch over the edge seams. Start at the bottom, backstitching, and your sewing machine should handle the thickness. It will stop when it hits those top rolls, which is alright. Just go as far as you can and backtack at that spot.

Here is the top opening. Note that I am squeezing it with my fingers. When I let go, it closes. I considered inserting a piece of plastic in the openings of the rolled edges, in place of drawstrings. That would produce an even more pronounced snap open effect.

Here are the final four bags I made for use in my "kit", shown behind.

Here is the kit, ready to go... four pipes held in place with velcro straps, a pack of pipe cleaners, a tin of English tobacco, a leather tobacco pouch (which will hold another pipe if wanted), and a lighter.

My "collection", at this time... 7 pipes. I have a couple more coming, and am keeping my eye out for old pipes at sales and auctions. My next project is to build a 24 pipe rack.

If anyone has a grandpa, father, husband or other who once smoked a pipe but no longer does and would like to see their old favorites go to a loving home... I'm here... :^)

My Zippo/Singer lighter... of which I am very proud. The emblem celebrates Singer's 100th year, like the Centennial emblems on the machines. These lighters were given to managers and lead sales people in 1951.