Do you love a free project which uses little bits of fabric? I certainly do and as every sewist in the world knows, it doesn’t take long to get a scrap bag bag together. This time I have a pattern for you for a little zipper pouch which can be made up either from the one colour as I have done or from a few different scraps.

Either way, it is simple and quick to make and it makes a great gift or an addition to a craft market. I have a few of these around the house and they are never empty!

Pouches can be used in so many settings – I have one in the car with things in it that I cannot do without and the pouch stops things from migrating around the glove box. Makeup pouches are a given and I have one handy pouch in my everyday bag that is full of essentials and I just swap it from bag to bag when I want a change.

This pattern is particularly useful because it is quite tall and slim which means it holds a lot but doesn’t take up a whole bunch of space – perfect to put into a tote.

But before we get started on the pattern, what on earth is QAYG? It stands for Quilt-as-you-go and it is a nice way to get two steps done in one. This pattern will give you plenty of help with it as we go along. don’t worry, it is actually easy.

This pattern, as I mentioned earlier makes great use of scraps and also of interfacing. It is another lesson in not throwing much away in the sewing room!

The real secret is to have a long enough zipper. Don’t scrimp here, especially if you are a newbie. It is the secret to ease of construction.

Okay then! Let’s go!
What will you need:

• FQ canvas in a pretty print for the outer. You can also use scraps as long as they are big enough to fit the wedge.
• FQ lining fabric to coordinate
• thread to match
• FQ  wadding. I am using #279 80/20 cotton mix by Vlieseline
• FQ foam interfacing. I love Style-vil by Vlieseline
• 20″zipper. Choose a plastic one that can be easily trimmed
• something to decorate the zipper pull. I am using a scrap of leather but you can use vegan leather or a charm too.
• your usual sewing needs

Here is the template. I have included a 1″ sizing square in the corner to help you. There is a PDF file too – new computer alert though – please let me know if the PDF does not work. I have my fingers and everything else crossed that it does.

To begin with, cut fourteen wedges from your chosen outer fabric and two pieces of lining using the template.

Take the main template and a water erasable marker and draw around the template onto the wadding twice. You will cover these lines with fabric in the making but for now it gives you an idea of what goes where. Note that i have found and marked the vertical centre line. make sure you do this so that you can get the panel symmetrical.

You can trim this a bit to make it easier to handle.

Now the idea of this game is to ‘colour in’ the area that you just drew with the wedges. Start in the middle and lay one of your wedges onto the template. Stitch down each side with a normal seam to keep it in place.

Find the centre of the wedge and match it with the centre of the main shape. Sew the side seams just to stabilise the first wedge.

This keeps the first piece in place as you work. A normal seam allowance is all you need and it is already included in your pattern. You actually won’t see the first seams. They are only really there to keep the initial piece down.

Now take the second wedge and place it right sides together onto the first one and sew a normal seam. It doesn’t really matter whether you sew the seam to the left or the right of the piece. If you are left handed, it might be more comfortable on the left. try and see.

Flip the wedge over and topstitch very narrowly along the join.

Keep adding like this until the outline is covered. As I mentioned though, don’t be too fussy if you can see the original outline peeking out. You will have plenty of room to fit the template on.

Place the template over your fan shape and align the centre marks. This is important so that the starting wedge forms the dead centre of your fan.

Do pay strict attention to the centre marks! I may have mentioned that! The centre mark has to be in the centre of that first wedge.

Now cut the shape out.

Repeat for the back. Take the front and the back panels and with the right sides facing, sew the base seam.

Now it is not quite stiff enough to keep a nice shape and this is where the foam interfacing comes in. Lay the front and back panels onto a slightly larger piece of style-vil foam interfacing and attach with a very narrow machine basting seam

Now trim the foam back. Sew the centre seam of the lining too so that you have a piece the same size and shape as the outer.
Okay, so you now have one large piece and we are ready to tackle that zip!

Find the centre of the zip (there will be a zipper overhang each end of your pouch and that is on purpose, so don’t worry that you have done anything wrong). Find the centre of the pouch too and line that up with the centre of the zip. Pin or clip. I really prefer clips because they do not get in the way like a pin can. If you haven’t got any, consider going old school and hand basting – no really! It is still one of the best ways IMHO.

Using your zipper foot, sew along the zip. This first seam is actually just to hold the zipper in place. I do this because once the lining is put on the top, you cannot see what the zip is doing and it can shift. If you have chosen to hand baste, you can actually skip this step.

Open the zip right out and do the same thing on the other side of the bag. This is why such a long zip was required too; as you can see, the overhang allows the pouch to sit absolutely flat and believe me you want that when you are working on it.

Take the lining next and place it over the zip and sew that along too. You will see at this point how you lose sight of the zip. The hand or machine basting step means that it is behaving nicely under the lining.

You can do all of this in the one step if you are very good at putting in zips. But for the beginners, it is better to do it in two halves so that nothing shifts around. There are a lot of layers there and you don’t want to skip steps and make a less than perfect job. And even though I have been doing this for a very long time now, I never skip this step.

Now we are negotiating a curve and we need to notch the zipper so that it sits flat when it is turned out. Notching removes a bit of fabric and gives what is left a bit of room to fold around the curve. It sort of mitres together.

Now reach in though the end gaps and turn the pouch the right way out. This is the start of the exciting bits! And here again, your can see that the long zipper tails mean that you can work on a flat item.

Smooth everything down and press if you need to. Topstitch along the zipper. This is an important step and should not be missed. It helps to keep the lining down and ensures that it cannot get caught in the zipper.

For the next step, close the zip about a quarter of the way. The zipper pull must be inside the pouch. I cannot stress that enough! We are going to trim the zips back now and if the zipper pull is on the long flappy end and outside the pouch, you will cut it off. Back to square one then in most cases I am afraid!

Turn the pouch inside out and sew across the ends. It still looks a complete mess with all of the raw ends but they will be gone in a minute.

This will shorten the zipper too. Cut the excess zipper off.

From your lining, cut a piece 1 1/4″ wide x 7 long. Fold it in half length ways and press.

Press the two raw edges to the centre and the cut it in halves to make two pieces of straight binding.

Trim the ends of the pouch and bind with the binding. I always hand stitch this. The machine will do the job but it can be clumsy and not so perfect. Keep your hand sewing skills up. You will need them for bag making.

When you look into the bag now, those zipper ends will be invisible.

Turn everything out the right way and trim the zipper pull with your chosen embellishment.

And that is all there is to it! This is a make that you will want to make again and again and it is the perfect way to use scraps.

I adore the way the foam interfacing adds to the structure. So many pouches are a bit flat and sad and they look homemade rather than hand made. Trust me, interfacing will really lift the quality of your work.

This post does contain some affiliate links to items similar to those used in this pattern and if you click on them and buy, I will earn a small commission.

’till next time, have fun sewing and stay safe!

Hugs

Debbie xx