I’m off to a great start with my new de-cluttering way of life. I’ve decided to focus on craft supplies first. My motto, use them or lose them (well, not so much the lose them part. Lets not go that far). My first port of call. The ever growing fabric stash. It’s insane. This unicorn fabric is from a dress I had 10 years ago. This is a typical find in my fabric hoard. I loved the fabric, but not the dress so much, so I’ve (finally) made it into a new make up bag instead. I’ve also used the tie dye denim fabric I bleached two years ago to make a clutch and some gorgeous patterned fabric my sister donated to the cause to make a little phone/sunglasses pouch.

This is a pretty long post, so grab a cuppa then get started.

Materials:

Outer Patterned Fabrics

Lining fabrics (I prefer plain fabrics. Less figuring out which way they’re meant to go)

Zippers and thread

A sewing machine is preferable, but you can hand sew if you don’t have one and have loads of time on your hands…

Instructions:

1. Measure the size of the fabric you require. For this example I wanted a phone pouch so I measured my fabric 3/4″ larger than my phone.

2. Cut two outer fabric pieces and two lining pieces to these dimensions and a zip about an inch longer than the length of the side you want it to be.

3. To sew the fabric onto the zip we’re going to do one side of outer and lining fabric first, then the other. Place your lining fabric down (face up if you have a patterned fabric), then your zip facing up, then the outer fabric facing down. All of the layers should line up together so the zip teeth are sandwiched between the fabrics.

4. Pin in place and sew along the side of the zipper that is closest to the edge. This is way easier if you can get your hands on a zipper foot for your machine.

5. Fold both fabrics back over the stitching and press down.

6. You want to do exactly the same thing on the other side of the zip. So again, place your lining fabric facing up, zipper (with fabric attached) facing up and outer fabric facing down, lining them up at the edge and also with each other.

7. Pin and sew and press again.

8. Now if you using a length of zipper without a pull like me you’ll want to pop it on now. This can be a little tricky, but I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to open the zip up slightly and insert each end into the top of the pull. Push them in as far as they will go on both sides. Pinch the zipper fabric behind the pull firmly and pull down on the tag. It might take a minute but it will go eventually, trust me.

Yes! You’ve made it this far. Go to the next page for the last bit of the tutorial:

9. Open up the zip about 3/4 of the way, the pin the outer fabric together and the lining together. At this point you can make life easier by pinning the zip together so it folds towards the outer fabrics.

10. Start from one of the bottom corners of the lining, sew the three sides all the way along the whole pouch to the corner of the outer fabric, then the edge of the outer fabric and then back down the other side of the pouch. Do not sew the last edge.

11. Turn the whole piece inside out (this is where you’ll be thankful you opened that zip!)

12. Fold the open edges inside to give a neater line and sew it up. You don’t need to worry too much about this. It’s inside the pouch. Out of sight, out of mind.

13. Press down to give nice clean edges and you’re done! Now get back to the fabric stash and start on the next one.