My youngest niece and I share a bit of an obsession with makeup. We talk makeup a lot and I pass on anything I’m not using to her. So when her birthday rolled around, I knew exactly what she wanted – makeup! I’ve been seeing some gorgeous metallic makeup bags around lately and thought I’d make her a set. The problem with that is finding metallic fabric. I’ve seen loads of options online but my trip to Spotlight didn’t turn up much. Nothing as metallic as I had in mind. I’m really trying to shop my stash anyway. What did I have that was shiny or blingy? I remembered I had both silver and gold metallic stretch dance fabric, leftover from the unicorn dog costume I made for Halloween. I knew it would be perfect! Dance fabric is always around in all kind of metallic options, so it’s a good fix if you can’t find a metallic woven you like. Since it is a stretch fabric, I thought I’d use it as an overlay on a more sturdy base fabric. I had some black cotton twill leftover from my vintage inspired cocktail dress that would work beautifully. My niece is a pink kind of girl so I chose pink polka dot lining from the fabric left over from the bunny rug I made a while back. I just don’t see much length variety in metal zippers here, so when I need one, I buy spares. I had three slightly different length zippers in the sewing room. Great! Managing to find all the components from scraps made me very happy. Love to bust that stash!
The size of my pouches was determined by the length of the zipper tape. However long the zipper tape is, that’s how long the top and bottom of the rectangle will be. For each pouch I cut 2 pieces of both outer and lining fabric. I made mine in these sizes:
- Big 9.5″ x 6.5″
- Middle 8.5″ x 6″
- Small 7.5″ x 5″
I cut out all my outer and lining pieces, ready to go. For the metallic accents, I cut 2 x 3″ wide strips that were a bit longer than the zipper length. I estimated the length because I thought the stretch fabric might shift and it would be easier to trim it down after sewing.
Once all the pieces are cut, the first thing to do is attach the metallic section. I put the metallic strip on top of the black outer, right sides together. I aligned the strip so it was parallel to the bottom edge but 5cm or 2″ away (I chalked a line for easy sewing but do what works for you). I didn’t pin because it would mark the metallic fabric. Using a 13mm or 1/2″ seam allowance, I stitched the metallic to the black. I flipped the metallic down and topstitched. No ironing because the metallic melts. I trimmed the metallic fabric to the same length as the outer but didn’t worry about trimming the bottom edge, we come to that later. Do this for for all the other outer piece (or pieces if you are making a few in one go, as I was.)
Now we make a zipper sandwich! Lay one of the outer pieces right side up, align the zipper face down along the top edge and lay a lining piece on top, right side down. Pin all the layers together so that the zip is centrered and all the top edges are neatly aligned. You may want to switch from your regular sewing foot to a zipper foot but you can probably get away with a regular foot. Sew a nice straight seam, through all three layers, removing pins as you go. If you have a bulky zipper pull, just start the seam after the zip pull and sew most of the seam. Then pull the zipper open until it is out the way and finish the seam. You can see the darker bit of thread in the last pic, where I did this. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all the seams, especially if you need to move the zipper pull.
One half of the zip is done, yay! Now we need to do the other side. You should have one side of the zipper tape sewn between the lining and outer and the other side free. Lay out your second outer piece, right side up and lay the free edge of the zipper tape along the top edge, with the right side of the zip touching the outer. The lay the lining piece on to of that, right side down. It’s exactly what we did in the last step but on the second side. Align and pin all three edges and sew them all, just as before. Perfect!
No one likes a zip that catches on the fabric and gets caught! To avoid that, lay your pouch down so it’s open flat, lining side up and press the seams we just sewed, so the fabric is away from the zipper. You have that melty metallic, so be careful and press from the lining side. Once everything is nice and flat, topstitch along the zipper. You are sewing through the outer, the zipper tape and the lining. A zipper foot may still be handy here! These stitches will be seen, so go slow and keep them neat. I like to change my stitch length from 2.5 to 3.5 because I think it looks nicer but it’s not necessary.
The most important thing to do next, is to open your zipper! Not all the way because you don’t want the zipper pull too close to your seams but about 2/3 of the way. Now, align the two lining pieces and the two outers together. Pin all the way around, being sure to make sure your metallic sections align. When you get the the zipper tapes, push them towards the lining side and make sure they line up. If you were to sew all the way around, you wouldn’t be able to get into the pouch! So be sure to leave and opening in the bottom of the lining, big enough to get your hand through. Beginner or seasoned pro, good alignment and pinning will make the finished item so much neater and cleaner.
Start sewing (again with a 13mm or 1/2″ seam allowance) from one side of the gap in the lining, all the way back to the other side of the gap. You’ll want to go slow over the ends of the zipper tape, you don’t want to sew through any metal (if you are using a metal zip) or you will break a needle and you also want things neatly aligned. Similarly, as you come to where the metallic sections meet, you’ll want to be careful to keep them aligned. Remember how I didn’t trim the metallic fabric along the bottom? I just used the black fabric as my guide, not the metallic and sewed on. Once it was all sewn, I trimmed the bottom seam allowance and the end of the zipper taper, to reduce bulk. I also snipped across the corners of both outer and lining fabrics to get a better corner. I put my hand through the lining gap and then my open zipper (see, I said the open zipper was important!) and pulled everything through. I used a pen to poke out the outer corners (don’t use anything too pointy or you’ll push right through!) and made them fairly crisp.
You did it! Just got to close that hole in the lining. Depending on your choice of fabric, you may want to press but I simply folded in the raw edges. You can just top stitch the lining closed or hand stitch if you prefer. Put the lining to the inside, settle everything in and you are done! Unless you fancy a little personalization, then keep reading….
You did it! Just got to close that hole in the lining. Depending on your choice of fabric, you may want to press but I simply folded in the raw edges. You can just top stitch the lining closed or hand stitch if you prefer. Put the lining to the inside, settle everything in and you are done! Unless you fancy a little personalization, then keep reading….
Monograms and personalized items have been crazy popular lately and since these were a birthday gift, I really wanted that personal touch. I have a Silhouette cutting machine, that cuts out custom images from lots of things but I mostly use it to cut heat transfer vinyl (or HTV as they say!). I love HTV so much! Once you have ironed it on, it’s washable and permanent. In my initial plan, I was going to put my nieces name on the pouches but I loved there sleek modern look so much. And I didn’t want to chance melting the metallic. So I decided to put her name (well, her nick name, I guess) on the inside lining. I cut it out of HTV and pulled out the lining for easier (non melty) access. I gave it a good pres for 6 secs with my iron and hey presto!
I think these came out so sweetly! As you can see I made a little trio of pouches, all with my giftees name inside. At he last minute, I also added some tassels to the zipper pulls. The smaller two got small, pink tassels with a pink crystal embellishment. I attached them with a small jewelry clip (the kind you get on necklaces) so they are easily removable. I put a simple black tassel on the biggest one, just looped through the zipper pull. I thought the larger one might also work as clutch and didn’t want to overdo it. I did put a third pink tassle and clip in, just in case she wanted things to be matching. I don’t have a photo of them tasseled because they were made, wrapped and delivered pretty quickly!
I love that even some basic sewing skills can turn out such an attractive and fun result! That super shiny metallic is amazing in a project like this. It’s such a specialty fabric and even though I only bought a little of each, I thought I’d never find a use for it. But as it goes, it was the perfect thing at the perfect time. Got to love that! My niece loved her makeup pouches and immediately transferred her collection into them. She got such a kick out of the fact that they had her name inside and that they were made specially for her. And that is the cool thing about sewing! If you make these, I’d love to see your results! And if you are beginner and confused by anything, just leave me a message here or send me and email. Happy Making!
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