

This Zip Itself coin purse is truly an amazing and creative handmade design… zip-up to a tetrahedron shaped coin purse, unzip to a long ribbon. This zip-itself coin purse is made from 2 simple materials that you can get from the shop easily – ribbon and zipper. If you wish to line the Zip-Itself Coin Purse, then you need additional fabric strip or more ribbon, but I personally think that this Zip-Itself Coin Purse looks fine without the lining.

I accidentally saw this Zip-Itself coin purse when I did a search for the tetrahedron coin purse and I love the idea. I knew I am going to scratch my head and drill into the detail of the design and make it one day… Here it is, I have got it done and share the Zip-Itself Coin Purse pattern and tutorial here.

I am showing the hand sewing method in the tutorial page but you may opt to machine sew if you find it is faster and easier in this way. Get the detailed tutorial by clicking the tutorial page.

Zip-Itself Coin Purse

Materials:

1. Zipper (nylon) – 20″, 1pc.

2. Ribbon (1/2″ or 5/8″)- 20″, 1pc. (Note: you can use grosgrain, woven, satin ribbons, or other alternative materials like lace, ric-rac, fabric strip, soft twill tape, etc.)

3. Ribbon – short length for the purse loop.

4. Lining fabric strip (3/4″) – 20″, 1pc. (optional)

Tools:

1. Sewing needles.

2. Matching threads

3. Pins

4. Marker

5. Warm iron (optional, use only with lining)

Get ready the materials and tools as per quantities stated above.

Measure 2 3/4″ from zipper’s bottom stop, including the bottom stop.

Lay the ribbon slightly over the marking. If the ribbon has a direction (in this case, the Pucca doll), the bottom edge should point to the zipper.

Backstitch the ribbon to the zipper, about 1/32″ from the teeth in order for the slider to get through.

Note: I sewed with a longer stitch on the wrong side but shorter stitch on the right side for the backstitch. Scroll down to the lining step and you will see the stitches on the wrong side. Due to the short stitch on the right side and the way the needle pick up the zipper tap, it didn’t show a lot like backstitch from the back, but I swear that it is backstitch 😉

Bend the zipper tape down at the end, adjust it to make the edge smooth.

Continue sewing the ribbon. Pin the ribbon on the tape will make sewing easier.

Continue sewing until you reach about 4″ – 5″ from the top stop of the zipper.

Your actual ribbon should look longer than this, I trimmed some away before taking this picture.

Unzip the zipper.

Come back to the start point. Arch the tape at the marking, pin the ribbon to the tape as shown.

Sew ribbon to the tape of the other side of the zipper.

Trim off the extra length, fold the raw edge of the ribbon and slip stitch the ribbon to the tape by following the curve.

A nice smooth curvature determines the beauty of the purse.

Continue backstitching the ribbon to the zipper tape until you are about 1″- 2″ away from the top stop.

Zip-up the zipper and the purse is formed through an upward spiral closure.

Press the top edge of the purse to find the top corners of the tetrahedron shape, which is usually the center of the bottom corners.

Mark both points.

Judge the shape from a different angle to check if it is balanced.

Once you are satisfied with the shape and marking, unzip the zipper for the next step to continue sewing the ribbon to complete the purse.

Arch the longer zipper tape at the marking, the zipper ends should meet and intersect at the other marking.

Place a ribbon loop on the intersection point of the zipper, pin.

Sew to complete the coin purse. Trim off the extra length of the ribbon and insert the raw edge of the ribbon, slip stitch to the tape.

Whipstitch the zipper edges at the back of the purse.

[Update: Thanks to Grandma G’s suggestion to add more information in the photo that is self-explanatory.]

If you would like to line your purse in order to hide the stitches, do the following.

Fold and press the raw edges to make a 1/2″ wide fabric strip. Slip stitch along the stitching lines of the ribbon.

A full lined Zip-Itself coin purse in tetrahedron shape is completed.