Heavy Duty!

Hi everybody!  I'm glad the Zippy Pouch Tutorial seems to make sense.  Once I got over my fear of zippers, I really couldn't understand what my hangup had been.  Oh, don't get me wrong -- I still fear the zipper FOOT, just not the zipper.  I've broken too many needles by not remembering to move my needle position to not have a healthy respect for that baby.

Anyway, the beauty of the Zippy Pouch is, as I said, it can be any size, any fabrics, whatever you want!  My friend Cindy commented that she likes to do use batting and do some machine embroidery on her zippy bags.  What a great idea!

I mentioned that you can baste the zipper in place before you do all the layering - and that I had done so recently on a heavy denim bag.  It really was helpful, as I was dealing with thick layers and pins weren't really working.  This is the bag I was working on:



Denim patchwork. Nothing like thick seams to go through. BUT ... I followed the same formula - just made sure the zipper is 1" shorter than what will be the top of the bag!  I did increase the size of the square I cut at the bottom to make my boxed corners - I think 3" on a 16 inch panel?  Something like that.



I had that cute "double zip" in my stash. I think it had been on a backpack. Something. I'm not sure. It works as a great zipper for this project. I needed a bigger purse - one that could hold all my stuff PLUS my Kindle and other "in case there's a long wait" kinds of things.

On the inside, I lined it with brushed denim from a discarded jumper and took some pockets off a pair of trousers my hubby had pitched.



Maybe they were golf shorts. I can't remember. Anyway - nice pockets, with Velcro fasteners. I lined one and sewed along 3 sides, so it was double pocket:



I had not put a zipper on anything this large (or bulky) before - and I'm really pleased with how it came out!  Please don't be afraid to give this a try!

Thanks for reading!