Week Four of the Great Scrap Challenge; Green Zippered Bag

Hi folks!
Well what a struggle - a zipper foot which REFUSED to play ball! I loathe putting in zippers at the best of times but today AAAARRRRGGGHHH!

Okay, I feel a lot calmer now and perhaps a start like that deserves a proper explanation! 

It is week four of my great scrap basket challenge and this time, I delved into the bottom to find some wonderful green fabrics. Sometimes, the secret to making a pattern work is to have one unifying factor. It might be shape, or design or, as I have done, colour. So it doesn't matter what you do as long as it uses the same colour. 
Because it is a scrap basket, I was not going to find enough pieces of fabric at the right size so I decided that patching was the way forward.

This is my favourite green....actually green is my favourite colour over all so that is a double bonus. And a zippered bag like this one is super useful. And here it is....

Just patchwork wasn't going to be enough so i embellished with a stamped panel and some buttons, a bow and a charm too. I had to be physically prevented from adding lace!

So what will you need?

- a zipper in the right colour. Mine is 18cm (7")
- enough fabrics for the outside and the lining
- embellishments - these are up to you and if you want to use lace, I won't tell anyone.
- a stamp of your choice
- stamp pad with permanent ink
- a small square of linen or some other plain fabric to stamp onto.
- your usual hand and machine sewing supplies.

I will give some sizes and they will all be based on a bag which measures 18cm x 10.5cm finished.

Start by stamping your image onto the pieces of linen. this linen is 6cm x 6cm.

Now take a small scrap of one colour and fold an edge under, sew this to the tail of the zip.

Next cut the lining and the back (whole pieces from the scraps if you can because it is more straightforward. They will all measure 19cm x 11cm.

As I mentioned, I ran out of big fabric bits so I made up the front panel from patches.

When you have done this, add the stamped panel and topstitch to attach.

The next bit involves making a 'sandwich' from the zipper, the lining and the outer piece. Do this, pin and sew and repeat for the back. You will need a zipper foot ideally. Good luck with that. Ignore me, I am having one of those days. It really isn't difficult and it does give a professional finish.

You can see the bee patch here. You can see the sandwiched zipper too.

 Next place lining to lining and outer to outer and (leaving a gap in the lining for turning out) sew all the way around. clip the edges and turn out through the gap.

Slip stitch the gap closed and stuff the lining down into the bag.

TIP: It is a heck of a lot easier to embellish the front (buttons and bows) before sewing the bag together. this also means that you hide the cottons. But my bag evolved without my knowledge so I had to sew them on sneakily afterwards!

Top stitching around the zipper is important as it stops the lining from getting caught. I chose to hand stitch this with a running stitch but it is up to you. The hand finished look is nice too.

This is a great use for odd buttons and bits of ribbon too. We have scraps of those things as well!

This last photo shows that first scrap that you put onto the zipper. This is not a waste of time at all because it finishes the zipper off and looks better - in my humble opinion anyway!

Well there we are. I do hope that you enjoyed this make. It is a really useful and nice way to use some of the larger scraps and you can personalise it so easily with special buttons and charms. A beaded charm on the zipper pull may look nice too.....

This is as simple as grabbing a 50 mm head pin and some beads (at least one of the green) and then making a 'kebab'. make a loop at the other end and attach with a 10 mm jump ring.

Whew! That's it for today! I hope that you have enjoyed this project and thank you so much for stopping by!

love and hugs
Debs
xxx

Coming Next Week: A patchwork phone case with a crochet top.