sew along- exposed zipper - easy bag - DL

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCN0616-1.jpg


What do you give the kid who has everything, all over the place? A bag to keep it all in. Seriously, I'll be giving these along with a toy (Playmobil) for gifts.


Pick a fabric that shows what goes in the bag, this one is for construction toys. If you only have a little of the focus fabric, you could sew a band of it to a plain fabric to "label" it.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p.../materials.jpg
you need 2 squares or rectangles of fabric, a zipper that is longer than the fabric, thread, standard presser foot, ribbon or additional fabric for tabs, and ribbon for zipper pull.




Press fabric nice and flat - plus press the zipper fabric to get it nice and flat too!

Step 1, pin zipper to one piece of fabric, at least 1" from the top. stitch down one side, with presser foot along the edge of the zipper

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0594.jpg




do the same to the other side of the zipper
then stitch down to the right of the stitching lines, you can use your presser foot as a guide.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0597.jpg



[make sure your zipper head is in the middle of zip not the end at this step] after you have 2 rows of stitches on each side, cut off the excess zipper, (don't use good scissors for this, cause you are cutting thru the zipper coil)
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0599.jpg




flip fabric over and cut down the center, leaving each end uncut for about 1/2 inch.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0600.jpg




if you got scissor happy like me and cut all the way thru, bar tack (zig zag, wide width, length set to 0) the zipper end shut.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0601.jpg





now trim close to stitching line
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0602.jpg




either use ribbon (at least the width of zipper), or make a tube of fabric, using your favorite tube technique. Cut one about 2.5" and anothe about 5"
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0605.jpg






fold these with the seams inside and place on zippers, baste it down, closer to edge than your normal stitch (1/4") Notice that the zipper is not closed (very important later)
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0607.jpg





place the 2 fabrics, right sides together and sew along all 4 sides, and zig zag edge (I didn't serge, cause I didn't want to change machines and I didn't want to sew over the zipper teeth on serger)
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0609.jpg




turn bag inside out, use a wooden stick, pencil (eraser side) or some other tool to poke out the corners. If your zipper is open you can turn it inside out (if not, well I wish I had a solution)
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0611.jpg




the bag is almost done, let's add a ribbon to the zipper pull, if your zipper head has a small hole, this technique will help you pull the ribbon thru (just like a serger thread cradle) thread a loop of thread thru hole in zip head and pull
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0614.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/DSCN0615.jpg




voila, my bag hanging on my favorite toy!
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCN0616-1.jpg



Have fun! I hope that this helps you out, if you are new to zippers.



Amy/ atozamy

My first exposed zipper! And my first sew along!:wave:

Cute bag, thanks for the sewalong!

Brilliant!

Now find me some playmobile fabric :D

Thanks Amy!

That is a neat bag. Just curious why you do it with the zipper exposed?

I had never done an exposed zipper before, so it counts as a new technique for the sewing challenge game.

Thanks for the sew-along. I'm always afraid of doing zippers. This looks like something I can do. :)

Nice work chica!!!!

I love it!!!

I know a little boy who might like that....

;)

Niiiice! :) Sewalongs are so helpful, even to get people to branch off from what you've shown. Thank you so much!!

Took me a bit to figure this one out, but now that I've made it, I like the decorative-ness of it. Good tute.

Thanks for the tut!! I have an aversion to zippers but will give this bag a try :)