Friday, May 13, 2011

Zippered Pouch-torial

Totally cute Zippered Pouch. 

First I'm sorry about the photo quality. I have the darkest house in the world I think.

What you'll need:
- Sewing Machine
-4 pieces of fabric cut equally
(cut to the FULL length of your zipper. 2 lining pieces. 2 outer pieces. Any size you choose. I wanted mine to hold 4 or 5 diapers so I literally used a diaper to measure and then made it a few inches bigger above, below, and on both ends than the diaper. I also had a 9 inch zipper to work with. )
- Zipper
-Scissors
-Pins

Obviously I embellished my pieces a bit. 
Creativity is a part of the process, but it has nothing to do with 
knowing how to sew. I can teach you the fundamentals of any 
of these projects, but the little extras are up to you.
"Trying" your ideas is a GREAT way to find your creative style.
That said I will ask you to ignore the embellishments and just go with the tutorial.

To begin you will need your zipper and 1 outer fabric piece and 1 inner. 
Make a zipper sandwich. 
So far this shows 1 side of the lining and the zipper laying on top:

I'm laying the FACE side down on the same edge of the zipper. Thus the zipper sandwich.
You'll want the face sides of the fabric facing IN! 
You need a zipper foot for this if using a machine.
If you don't know how to use yours..break out your machine manual. I did!

I used a basic straight stitch. 
It's important to remember that while you do want the fabric CLOSE to the actual zipper,
you need to allow enough space..a few extra hairs will do it..so that your fabric doesn't get 
caught in your zipper when you open and close.

Repeat the same step on the other side of the zipper. 

Then you will have two insides and two outsides on either side of your zipper. 
Unzip your zipper HALFWAY. If you don't do this you won't be able to flip the bag inside out!  Then arrange the bag so that both outside face sides are together and both inner linings are together and pin 3 sides. (yes i pinned 4, but it was for my peace of mind.)
leave the bottom edge of the inner lining unpinned/un-sewn for now.
One side note. If you want the wrist strap. Make one out of your fabric and then you'll want the loop to be INSIDE of the two outer pieces.
I had already cut the excess, but that is how it looked before I cut the ends down. Again the loop is INSIDE.

Stitch all 3 sides (2long sides and 1 short side of the outer part of bag).
I used a triple stitch for this so it would be very durable. 

Flip the bag inside out through the bottom of the liner.
Stitch (again with the triple) the open edge and push down inside the bag.

And there you have it! 

Happy pouching! 

xoxo
Courtney

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