This tutorial is for anyone who wants to master some simple basics  – sewing in a zip, and making a small pouch. Attachment pouches are so versatile and cracking for organising your stuff!

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You need:

Textile – cut 2, 18cm 10 14cm (5.5 10 7″) – I used abode decorator weight for this projection to make the pouch a little sturdier. Some other great option is to fuse some medium weight interfacing to your fabric for a stiffer stop.

one ten 15cm (6″) metal zipper

Good quality thread

Optional – rotary cutter and mat

Take 1 piece of textile and place the zip and fabric right sides together. Make sure your textile is correctly positioned if the print on your fabric is directional, like mine is. Pin in place if you would similar to.

Attach the zipper foot to your motorcar. Identify the zip and fabric under the pressure level foot and lower the needle into the position you want.

There are faint lines in the zipper record that you lot can apply as a stitching guide. Start sewing, guiding your zip and fabric through gently.

A little tip for sewing around the zipper tab – sometimes you will get close to the zipper tab and your presser human foot will collide with it, or at to the lowest degree struggle to sew past it. Place your needle down into the material, lift your presser foot, and gently move the zipper tab by zipping or unzipping the nil. Once the tab is out of your fashion, lower your presser foot and keep going!

Once you have completed the first side, repeat the process for the second slice of fabric. Line up your fabric and attachment right sides together.

Carefully sew the other side. Once you lot are finished you lot will cease up with this:

For a nice finish, topstitch along the fabric close to the attachment. This likewise helps to finish the edges inside the pouch become caught in the zipper.

Firstly, gently press your fabric (and recollect – if yous are using a plastic or polyester coil zip, don't let the iron touch the coils!)  Run up a neat line a couple of millimetres from the zip/cloth seam. In one case you are done, you will take this:

This is really important – open the zip now! You need a hole to exist able to turn the pouch right way out in one case yous take completed it, and if y'all forget to open the naught you volition have to unpick stitches! Argh!

At present fold your pouch right sides together. Pin effectually the edges.

If yous are one of my regular readers yous may remember a postal service called The Trouble With Zips, where I took a scientific approach to solving the mystery of bully corners in my null pouches when I sewed in the zips? This information continues on from that post, and shows you how to position the zip to ensure your corners are groovy and not pinched. A few people emailed me asking for some more than information, so here information technology is!

When y'all fold your zip pouch right sides together to prepare sewing up the sides, the zipper teeth demand to face up away from the exterior material.

You tin run across in the in a higher place picture that the open up part of the nix naturally folds that way, with the zip teeth facing out, or away from the exterior cloth. If you are sewing a lining into you pouch, the zipper is curtained by the lining textile, which makes this a bit trickier, so you just accept to ensure that the zip teeth are in the position shown in the photo.

Pin your sides into place and sew around the three edges.

Trim excess fabric and clip beyond the corners, existence conscientious non to snip through your stitches.

Turn your pouch right sides out and gently push button the corners out. You are finished! Hurrah! Now you lot tin use your pouch to shop all your $.25 and pieces!

If you feel confident now, you should requite a lined zipper pouch a endeavour! I have a couple of tutorials for lined pouches – the baby gift zipper pouch and the travel certificate pouch. Bank check them out!

At that place are some great books bachelor for beginners to really hone their skills – a couple I recommend include Unproblematic Sewing: 30 Fast and Easy Projects for Beginners and Lotta Jansdotter's Elementary Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects.

If you make a pouch using this tutorial I'd love you lot to share! Tweet me, post a picture to my facebook timeline, send me the link to your blog or upload a flick to my Flickr pool! I love seeing what people brand from my tutorials, information technology makes my day!