Free Sewing tutorial - Lined pencil case or pouch with central zipper

 
A few people have asked me for a tutorial for this pouch or pencil case with a central zipper and lining so I'm happy to oblige :)  These are great for using up small fabric scraps.  If you alter the sizing to suit your needs, these are so useful for all sorts of different things, make up brushes, storing your undies etc when travelling - Livvy wants me to make her a larger one to put her loose papers etc in for school rather than using an ugly plastic wallet.

Apologies for the poor lighting, it is such a dull grey day here today.

For this tutorial I'm going to make a pencil case size so you will need the following:

OUTER FABRIC - cut one piece measuring 21cm by 21cm - I used some of Anna Maria Horner's Bohemian fabric in a lovely aubergine colour, although the washed out photos don't do it justice at all.

LINING FABRIC - cut one piece measuring 21cm by a width of 20cm - the width of the lining is slightly less as you will be fitting this inside the finished outer case.  I like to use linen as it adds a bit of weight to the finished case - I also used some black iron on interfacing to stiffen this pretty purple linen. 

ZIPPER

TO MAKE THE OUTER CASE

Turn under (wrong sides facing) half a cm on two opposite ends of your outer fabric and press:

Tack/baste one of your turned under ends to the zipper - I used basting tape to save a bit of time.

If you are not familiar with basting tape, it is basically just a self adhesive tape, cut a strip to the required length, press to the edge of the zip (the good side) and peel away the backing paper.  This leaves you with a self adhesive strip you can press your folded under edge of fabric to as below:

Now machine stitch in place using a zipper foot:

Again using the basting tape, I attached the other end of the outer fabric to the zipper - this will automatically form a tube shape and you will need to open the zipper to enable you to machine stitch it in place - a little bit fiddly when you get to the end but not too bad:

 

Now we are going to sew up the side seams.  Pull the zipper about halfway and turn your tube inside out - DO NOT FORGET TO HAVE THE ZIP PARTIALLY OPEN - otherwise you won't be able to turn your outer case right side out after you have sewn the side seams - I hate having to unpick when I forget to do this - it is so easily done if you get distracted :)

I use a safety pin to help hold the ends of the zipper close together and a measuring gauge to centre my zip - press lightly and then you don't really need to pin before sewing the side seams.

 

Use a 0.5cm seam allowance and backstitch at your starting, stopping points and over the zip.

 

Put the outer case to one side whilst we make the lining.

TO MAKE THE LINING CASE

On the two sides which measure 21cm , turn under and press 0.5 cm (wrong sides together - you can see the black interfacing I used):

Turn over so that the wrong side of the fabric is face down (not shown) and using the measuring gauge again fold the two turned edges towards the middle as shown - if you were to peek inside you should see the right/good side of your fabric.

 

Press the folded edges and sew the side seams - 0.5 cm.

 

Trim the seamed sides of both the outer and lining cases with pinking shears, this is when you cut off the excess zipper too..

Remove the safety pin and turn the outer case right side out - gently push out the corners with a point turner, chopstick or your fingers if you have nothing else to hand :)   I like to gently press the outside case at this point too.

Now insert the lining case inside the outer case as shown below - the wrong side of your inside case will face the wrong side of your outer case and enclose the raw edges of the seams:

 

I use my point turner to gently ease the lining case right into the corners  don't worry if you find the lining case is a little too bulky to fit the width nicely,  just stitch another seam line slightly further in from the previous line of stitching and trim again - not too much though otherwise you could end up making the lining too small to fit well!

 

Added another photo as light is better today and want to show just how lovely the fabrics are really :)

Now hand stitch the lining to the underside edge of the zipper - I don't turn it inside out to do this I just kind of roll it over so that I can access it easily - I hope that makes sense!  I like to use invisible thread so that my stitches don't show even if I accidentally let the needle go all the way through to the outside of the outer case but it's entirely up to you :)

That's it, you're done, do let me know if something doesn't make sense but hopefully the photo overload should do the trick.  I hope people aren't offended that I tend to go into such detail on my tutorials, it's just that if you are an absolute novice then more info is definitely better.

I usually like to add some beads and ribbon to the zipper pull but this particular zipper didn't have a hole in the pull so I couldn't but it was such a great colour match I wanted to use it.

A note on buying zippers, I bought a huge job lot on ebay ages ago, a complete mixed bag of colours which means I usually have a suitable colour zipper on hand plus it worked out a lot cheaper that way.  The company is Zipperstop and they are based in New York.  Here is a link to their ebay auctions for bulk buy zippers.  They ship worldwide and now also seem to stock all sorts of other bits and pieces too.

Comments

[colourspace]

hello! i'll definately be trying this out.great instructions :)
Asia

[charlotte]

basting tape - wow! what a brilliant idea that is.

[Ali]

Great tutorial - thanks Esther!

[Florence]

What a fantastic tutorial - thank you, Esther. The trick with the saftey pin to hold the zip together, as well as the self-adhesive tape are really handy too.

I don't think I've popped by to say yet (I've found it hard to find the time to comment recently, so I have only been able to briefly lurk instead!), but I wanted to say that I have been so pleased to see your lovely blog and inspiring stitchery coming up in my bloglines again recently - I had missed it.

Florence x

[LizJury]

Thanks for that. I was lucky enough to "inherit" a box load of zips and pulls, of various lengths and colours. so we all know what will be in the Christmas stockings this year!!! love your blog by the way

[Cicada Studio]

Looks like I'm going to have to try this out. Thanks for the wonderful tutorial!

[Marianne Wille]

Thank you! I'm going to try this. :)

[Estee]

Esther, thanks for a fabulous tutorial. Great christmas gifts for the kids at school. x

[Tiff@Three Peas]

Oh I'm so glad you did this!! Thank you so much!!!

[picciolo]

hi, I've just found your blog and thought I'd say hi, this is a great tutorial!
: )

[Linda]

Thanks for the tutorial! I've been afraid of zippers but this looks like a quick project for me to become comfortable with them. I've got to put this on my to do list.

[Shannon]

Wow...you are so sweet to share this with us - thank you:) Love to find things to do with scraps of fabric.

[Anne Marie]

I completely lucked out today. I saw your pencil case and thought “perhaps I should ask for a tutorial, because I still haven’t figured out how to do the zipper thing yet”. Fortunately I clicked my way to your blog and to my big surprise the first post I see is the tutorial. Wow! And what a tutorial! I love the fact that you have been so detailed about everything and the amount of photos. It’s the best way to learn. Than you so much!!!

[Matroskin]

I just came across your blog and spent a long time looking at it. You have wonderful ideas and I love your choice of fabrics, they are so cheerful. I'll be back.

[little luxury]

thanks so much for sharing your beautiful crafts!!!!
love your blog
regards laura

[Marian]

hello there! I saw your message on my blog... really intrigued now, what is up! my email is info@florcita.eu or you can try maruiana@hotmail.com Either get checked daily!
Thanks!

Mariana

[colourspace]

just to say HURRAH I have made one and it is lovely.Thankyou for finally giving me the courage to put the zipper foot on my machine, makes such a difference! :)

[JJ (Aunt Spicy)]

Thank you!!!!! I am useless with zippers and will definitely try your directions! Can not believe how much you have made, but it all looks so beautiful!

[Alice]

Thank you so much for this! I've been searching for something like this for ages. This looks great. Love the material :D

[Olivia]

This is really nice stuff. I finally found someone who likes the same things as me#