lined zipper pouch tutorial

This tutorial is mostly for my youngest sister.  She asked me to make her a few zipper pouches to take to college with her and I'm always happy to do that type of project, but I know it's something she could do too. I took pictures while I made them so she could see and maybe make her own.  Or, I'll keep making them for her.  Either way, it's cool.

I love making zipping pouches.  They are pretty easy and look pretty impressive when they are lined. 

If your sister won't make them for you, you'll need two pieces of fabric, an outer fabric and a lining.  You'll need a zipper of course, I like a plastic teeth zipper, not metal.  I usually use one way longer than the pouch I'm making and just cut off the extra later, but this is what I had on hand.  Also, if you'd like a handle, you'll need a strip of fabric for that.  The sizes all depend on how big you want your pouch.   Generally, you're using a rectangle.

If you want some decoration on the outside, add them now. I did a ruffle on this one.

Then I went ahead and made the strap.  You can fold it up however you want.  I folded my strip in half and then opened it up and folded each edge into the middle again and folded it up like a sandwich.  Iron, pin,

and sew.  I like to make two lines of stitches, one towards each edge. 

Here's my zipper.  It's a big fat one and perfect for this picture taking session.

Lay out the piece of interior fabric (for me, the blue bandana), right side up. 

Then lay the exterrior fabric (for me, the red gingham) on top of the zipper, right side down.  You've made a zipper sandwich.  The top of the zipper is in line with the tops of the fabrics.

Pin and sew.  I move my needle over to the left as far as it with go so that I can sew close to the zipper.  

You are sewing to the right hand side of the plastic teeth. 

Can you see how I'm pressing with my finger to show where the zipper teeth are and the edge of the foot.  Sometimes people switch to a zipper foot, I don't bother. 

Flip it over to make sure everything got laid right and lined up right and looks ok.  Check the back too.

Press and sew to make a nice top stitch.  

Move that needle back to center.  

Sew close to the edge of the fabric where it meets the zipper.

Lay out the pieces out. 

Now we're working on the other edge of the zipper.  Bring the interior fabric up to the zipper and place the right side of the interior fabric is against the backside of the zipper.

Bring the exterior fabric up the zipper, right side to the front side of the zipper.  

 You've made another zipper sandwich. 

Pin and sew with the needle moved to the left again.

You've made a figure eight.

Check out both sides and make sure everything ended up alright. 

Flip it around so that you can make the top stitch on the other edge of the zipper. 

Press and top stitch.

 

Yep, it's going alright.

Now, open the zipper at least half way. 

Lay out the fabrics so that the interiors are together and the exteriors are together.

Line up the zippers ends on each side.  the only hard side there is the zipper open side, but you have to leave the zipper mostly open.

Pin.  stitch around the pouch edges. 

Note where you do not sew, the blue circles.

You are leaving a spot open in the exterior fabric for the handle and a larger spot in the interior for the flipping process.

Don't be afraid, sew right over the zipper.  Just don't sew over the end pieces with are extra thick and hard.  I am pushing the blue fabric over just a tad to check and see where the zipper end is so I don't hit it.

It doesn't matter how exactly your cut out the interior and exterior fabric to match each other at the beginning, at some point they get a little out of whack and now is when you even them up.

Now, let's add the handle.  I like to sew it together before we do anything with it.

Insert the loop part of the handle into the exterior fabric opening. Insert it up the sewn line.  Now sew the fabric back together right over the handle.

Locate the opening left in the interior.  This is going to be some crazy flippping.  It's going to seem wrong at first. 

Your cat may be as helpful as mine is.  My little girl sits on my desk when I sew and helps. She eats pins.  It's not really that helpful actually.

Flip it until it's inside out.  If you didn't leave the zipper open, now is when you're going to see that it was really important.  Told you so. 

Then turn it right side out.  

Check all the seems, make sure it's all working out alright.

Now, slip that lining back out and locate that opening.

The correct way to close it up would be to do a hidden stitch here, but I just sew it on the machine.  

 Sew close to the edge. 

Push the lining back inside and really point the corners.

Fill it up with goodies.  

 This is what Bee put in hers- kleenex, a little animal, three of my hairbands, and a vending machine container. 

Here are the three for my sister.  I ended up adding buttons to the pouch above.

You can do anything to the pouch to decorate it. 

I also sometimes like to add corners to the bottom to make it a little bit of a stand up guy.

That's just one more little step in the construction, but adds a lot.  There's so much possibility for these little guys. 

Let me know if you use this tutorial and have any luck.  I tried to write it out as easily as I could.