Zippered pouch tutorial

So you have your quilted fabric that is approximately 12" x 35"

the pouches cut out

and you have your zipper. For the large pouch I use a 12" zipper. I have used a 11" - I had a bunch in my stash and wanted to use them up - it is just a little harder to do the topstitching with the 11" zipper, but it can be done.

Put on your zipper foot and stitch the one side of the zipper on the right side of the pouch. I place the zipper tape just to the end so that when the sides are sewn, the zipper stop will get missed. I don't pin the zipper in place, but just make sure the edge of the zipper tape runs along the edge of the pouch. As you sew you can move the zipper slider out of the way

For sewing on the other side of the zipper I pin it. Here you can see I have the zipper tape all the way to the side edge just like I did on the first side.

I pinned it all the way across and then stitched it.

Flip the zipper to the back of the pouch and topstitch each side

Close the zipper part of the way and with right sides together, line up the sides at the end of the zipper. Don't worry if a bit of the front of the fabric is peeking out a bit. It can be trimmed off after the seam is sewn.

Sew the seam. I sew a quarter inch seam, going over the zipper a couple times since that will be a stress point. I usually hand crank the needle to make sure I don't hit anything.

Trim so the layers are even and cut off the excess zipper

Line up the other side. You can see here with the zipper tape sewn the way I did it, with a quarter inch seam I will not hit the metal zipper stops. Again I sew over the zipper a couple time to make sure it is good and secure.  Trim as needed. 

Next I zig zag the seams to keep it nice and neat!

We are almost done! Open the zipper up, stick you hand inside, and open up and match up the cut out for the box corner. I sewed a quarter inch seam and went over it twice.

Both corner done!

Turn the pouch right side out and you are done! Let me know if you have any questions!

The other little task I did was to take the pocket flaps off of this shirt for one of the guys at work. The flaps were useless and with them gone it would be much easier to put something like a pen in the pocket.

That took all of 5 minutes!

Thank goodness it is Friday. I'm tired. I did stay up and watch the first half of the Notre Dame Penn State game. I was shocked when I saw the score this morning. Woohoo! My weekend plans are to get all the pouches sewn and to get back to the t-shirt quilt. Have a great weekend!