Creations by Bonnybee: PROJECT: Week of Cosmetic Bags! Day #1

I love little zippered pouches for holding make up, jewelry, bobby pins, change or random things inside my purse, so I have decided to try out several fun tutorials and patterns and make some! I have chosen 5 different shapes and sizes to try. I will use different fabrics and experiment with some decorating and applique techniques. So check in all week to see how they all turn out!

Monday, Cosmetic Bag #1

For my first creation I wanted to keep it simple with a little zippered pouch. I did fancy it up a little by covering the ends of the zipper and decorating the front with an strawberry applique. Another thing I did is line the pouch with clear vinyl so it could easily be wiped out and cleaned. As you will see later the vinyl did create a few problems.

I am not going to write out a detailed tutorial for you all because there are many wonderful ones on the internet already, and for the most part I used this one from Flossie Teacakes and she does a terrific job with her tutorial.

First thing I did was cut out all my pieces as instructed in the tutorial. Instead of a second set of interfacing for the lining, I cut two pieces of vinyl. Recently I purchased a cutting mat and rotary cutter and I am absolutely loving them. It makes cutting pieces out so easy and they come out much straighter than I normally make them.

After cutting the pieces I added my cutsie strawberry detail. This was SO easy to do. I free handed the strawberry on red and green felt, cut them out, and hand stitched them onto the center of my outer fabric piece. I also sewed on 6 czech glass beads for seeds. Here is a close up picture of my little strawberry.

Next I sewed together my outer fabrics with interfacing and my lining with vinyl. This was my first experience using vinyl in a sewing project and I have to say it wasn't the easiest material to work with. I believe I will have to work to perfect my technique. The vinyl was slippery and did not want to say lined up with the lining fabric. And if you sew with the vinyl down, it sticks slightly to the sewing machine! I ended up with the purple striped fabric looking quite baggy when sewn to the vinyl but I pressed on, and in the end it was hardly noticeable. I also covered my zipper ends with little fabric squares.

I don't have a picture of the next step but I sewed both sides to the zipper and then outer fabric and lining together. If you have not done many lined bags/pouches, I would follow a tutorial closely for this. It can be a real bummer to finish and realize one side is wrong side out.

One of the best parts of sewing a lined accessory is when you have to turn the item right side out through the teeny tiny opening you left in the lining. It always feels like there is no way I will be able to smoosh all that fabric through that tiny hole. And this time that was almost the case.

I left a two inch opening for turning the pouch right side out but between the heavy duty interfacing I used, the sticky vinyl, and the beaded applique it was a tight squeeze. If you choose to add extras like I did I would give yourself extra room for this step.

Eventually after a lot of tugging, my little pouch was right side out and after some straightening, it was finished!

Now I have the urge to make a whole fruit basked of these!

Here is a link to another great tutorial which is less complicated and forgoes the zipper end covers. She uses iron on vinyl in this tutorial. I have never heard of this but I will be looking for it A.S.A.P. Perhaps it is easier to manage!