Basic Fabric Purse with Zip / Zipper ~ How to make your own Fabric change purse ~ with free tutorial

Finished purse

I’ve only recently overcome my fear of putting zips in things, and so to prove some purses for my Little People and have made this first one  to go alongside my wee tote bags for my upcoming craft fairs. It was very easy to do, although I did have a bit of a mind-blip when trying to work out how to lay it out so that when I turned the damned thing it would be the right way round 😀

Finished purse

 

Materials Needed

Two pieces of outer fabric (mine are 15cm x 12cm)

Two pieces of inner fabric (same size as outer)

Zip (mine was 12cm)

Here’s how I made it – really genuinely very easy;

Purse with Zip and matching Wee Tote

See the slideshow below for a visual step-by-step visual tutorial

1. Cut your pieces of fabric and iron if needed. If you need to add interfacing, do that now.
2. Iron a hem onto the long edge of each of the four pieces (the edge where you want the zip to go).
3. With the ironed hem out of sight, pin the four pieces of fabric onto the zip, making sure the edges of the front and back match up.
4. With the zipper foot on your machine, sew the two sets of fabric together over the zip. Take care to ensure all fabric pieces are sewn in. Start from the closed end of the zip and sew towards the open end. Shortly before the end, lift your presser foot , ease the zip end past the foot and sew the rest of the zip.
5. Fold the two outer fabrics together, Right Sides Together [RST], and pin, matching up raw edges carefully. Repeat with the inner fabric pieces.
6. Starting at the bottom of the inner fabric pieces, and leaving a 5-6cm gap for turning, stitch all around the edges, going carefully but fully over the ends of the zip. Back stitch a couple of times as this will take some pulling when turning.
7. Turn the purse the right way round by reaching in and pulling the outerfabric through the gap in the inner fabrics.
8. Get your chopstick out to poke the corners out.
9. Before tucking the inner fabric away, blind stitch the gap closed. See here for a detailed description on how to do this if you’re not sure, or just stitch over as this will be at the bottom of the purse on the inside so won’t be very visible anyway.
10. Tuck the inner fabric in place inside the purse.
11. Ta Daaah! You’re done! Made By Yours Truly. Sit back and admire your work with a nice cuppa (or make a matching Wee Tote instead)!

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