Sunday, November 9, 2014

First zipper project!! Small Clutch

Being new to sewing, I've stayed away from patterns with zippers for now because they looked very intimating and I don't have a zipper foot for my machine yet. BUT I decided to suck it up and try it out and see what happens. Pinterest came through from me again, and I found a super easy pattern to follow from girl. Inspired. Her tutorial was very easy to follow, and I think my clutch turned out great. As I mentioned in my first post, I'm using old clothes and blankets from around my house for right now, while I get the ins and outs to sewing and then I will go crazy buying fabric :) 

Ok, let's begin! Gather up your materials...I used an old pair of jeans and tank top and then of course all the good things to cut and measure, and the dreaded zipper! 

girl.Inspired  has a great step by step tutorial on her blog, so I won't be repetitive and just show you my fun experience :) You might notice the lack of interfacing on my table, and that's because I don't have any yet and really just wanted to practice with a zipper so I left it out this time, but don't recommend skipping this if you plan on actually using your clutch. Mine doesn't hold it's shape very well :)

Cut, ironed and ready to go! 


 As I mentioned earlier, I don't have a zipper foot so I just felt with my finger where the zipper was and sewed close to the edge to make sure I didn't sew to close or over the zipper.



Pinned and ready to sew all the way around

Don't forget to mark your start and stopping points, leaving a space to pull the bag through!

 Another good tip is to make sure you remember to have the zipper OPENED before sewing the bag together, so that you can easily pull the bag through to the right side. I forgot, and had to have my awesome husband open it up for me.


Oops! Lesson learned :P  
 All the tutorials I've found online say to hand sew the opening shut but since it's in the inside of the bag and won't be seen, I just did a straight line across the top of the lining. Feel free to hand sew though if you want it to blend nicely.

And we have a finished clutch!! Pretty simple looking since it was for practice but the zipper works and was actually really easy to sew on! And if I can do it, so can you! Now to go shopping for fun fabrics to use next time! Keep an eye on my Etsy shop if you'd prefer to just buy some instead of making them ;) 





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