Little Makeup Bag

My husband invited me to tag along to an overnight conference. I could hang out in the hotel and just relax while he and his cohorts went to meetings. I thought that was a grand idea! I quickly threw together an overnight bag, but I didn't have a makeup bag that I wanted to take. I had one that was too big, another that was too big, and another that is too dark inside and I can never find anything in it. Hmmm.

What else would I do in a situation like this? I made one!

First thing I did was look through my zipper stash and I found a 7" plastic pink zipper.  Great!  Then I looked through my PUL fabrics and found something that matched up. I cut two rectangles of the PUL so that the zipper edge was 8" giving me plenty of room to secure the zipper on the corners.

I sewed the zipper on each piece, one on each side, and then I sewed up the sides and bottom of the bag.  When I finished, I boxed the corners on the bottom edge to give it a little volume and a base to stand on. Worked great!

My little makeup bag was cut and sewn in about 20 minutes. It was the perfect size, not too heavy and a nice bright color. Love it!

Zipper Purse

Is it a purse? Actually, more of a wristlet or coin purse. It's not an actual "purse" really;  the way I think of that word when I hear it is a large tote bag with pockets. If you make one, you can call it anything you'd like. Zippy the Zipper wristlet? Fred? Sure, whatever. Give it a gender and a personality too! Go crazy! Or, not. It's your call.

Let's make this! Please forgive me for the lack of macro-photo skills. I'm better at sewing than I am at taking photos. If it's blurry, just squint. It won't help, but it'll make you think it's you and not me.

Choose two long zippers. The longer the zipper the larger the purse. The zippers do not have to be the same size or the same color, but they should be the same width and have a similar zip. I'm using two long red metal zippers that are nearly the same, although one is longer than the other.

Start by sewing the zipper butts together. Is that the technical term for the end of the zipper? Specifically, the butt end? It is? Great. I thought so too.

You can use a regular presser foot rather than a zipper foot for this project. Nice of me to mention that now after you just changed out the feet, right? The zipper foot isn't necessary because you'll be sewing on the very edge of the zipper and it is out of the way enough to use the regular foot. It shouldn't be an issue. If it is, then use your zipper foot, or use wider zippers.

Now, you have one really long zipper that has a head at each end and two butts in the middle. It will not unzip all the way from end to end but that's ok. Both zippers will unzip to the middle, which is cool.

Take one head and fold it down so the zipper is folded on top of itself.  I didn't measure but folded about 3.5 - 4 inches. This is the width of your purse. Sew along the edge.

Now it looks like this:

You will be sewing in a spiral fashion from one end to the other. Once you get that first section sewn, the hardest part of the project is next. Sewing around the first bend. You can do it!

For the first corner, I pin the two pieces of the top of the zipper to where it will be sewn because those little stumps want to slide away.

Important thing to remember before you get to the very end, let's just do it now, unzip it a bit. Sew the stumps down and continue to sew the edges along the other side.

Getting started is the hardest part and you are way past that now. Pat yourself on the back! Sew around another corner, it's awkward and funny, just do it.

Spiral around and around right to the end of the next head, and you should end up with a tube of zipper. If you did not, then you screwed up somewhere and you need to get your seam ripper out and go back to the top of this tutorial and try again. Stop cussing, it happens. And I don't know where you went wrong. For the rest of you, Yay! you are almost done!

Flip it inside out and squish it flat. 

Sew across the one edge that is still open at the top of the purse. One end or the other needs to be unzipped so you can flip it back around.

Sew the stumps down. 

Ta Da!!! A zipper purse!

Oh, wait, we need a strap. Flip it around again and add a little ribbon or something to use as a strap. I sewed it to the stumps. 

And then tacked it down so that it wouldn't pop up every time you unzip it for use.

For real this time:  Taaaa Daaaaa!!!  A zipper purse!

Just for fun, unzip it!