Pouches for Pennies

Seriously - this pouch cost me 86 pence in materials!

I bought a pack of two tea-towels from Poundland and I'm only using one, so 50p or 75 US cents for that, I buy my plastic zips from Zipit on Etsy; they cost about 35p each (maybe 50 cents) and I used an old sheet for lining, so my cost is less that £1 or $2.

I folded the tea-towel in half, and laid it on a folded piece of sheet the same size.

I trimmed the hems off the tea-towel, cutting the lining to the same size

I unfolded the fabrics, and cut 2" off one short end (I'm sure there is a way to do it without this cut, but its too hot to get my head around it)

I stitched the short lining piece, right side to the back of the zip, aligning the edges, (see the pic) **Change to the zip foot!**

 

I then stitch the long lining piece the same way to the other half of the zip

I repeated with the right sides of the outer fabric to the front of the zip (making sure the lining pieces are out of the way)

I now have something looking like this

I start to sew the outer pieces together.  Make sure the other sections are out of the way, and for now just leave the zip area, and stitch the sections shown here for the outer part

For the lining you need to leave an opening so we can turn it right sides out later

Now square it all up and sew over the zip end openings.  Sew through both the lining and the outer fabric and the zip (remember this should be a plastic zip!!!)

BEFORE you sew over the zip edges make sure it DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS - unzip so the zipper pull is inside the bag.  I predict there will be rude words, the gnashing of teeth and a bit of unsewing if you don't

 (No, we do not need to go into any discussion as to how I know this)

The opposite side can be stitched over without any unpicking advance planning.  I added a fold of ribbon as it gives a tab to pull against when closing the zip

Trim off the corners and the excess zip, using old scissors, then turn the whole lot through the side opening and sort out corners and edges and the stitch the turning gap closed.

And the result? (all for the price of a bar of chocolate!)

And

And

And

Excuse me while I go and look for some more tea-towels!

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