Homemakery How To: Lined Box Pouch with Lace Zipper

We have had these gorgeous lace zips in for a while now and I was keen to use one on a box pouch to show it off in all its glory.

I searched high and low for a proper lined box pouch tutorial using a lace zip and couldn’t find one so I ended up mixing and matching a bunch of tutorials to make my finished pouch. I thought I would share my version here .

The finished box pouch measures 8 1/2 inches long by 5 1/2 inches wide and 2 1/2 inches high.

If you are looking to make a lined pouch with a normal zip I thoroughly recommend checking out tutorials by Pink Stitches and Pretty Modern.

Ingredients

1 Fat Quarter Cream May Flowers by Bonnie & Camille for Moda (Exterior Fabric)
1 Fat Quarter Red Spot by Bonnie & Camille for Moda (Interior Fabric)
30cm Lace Zip – Emerald
Iron on Interfacing
Green thread to sew on Zip – 6724
White Thread

Equipment

Rotary Cutter and Mat
Quilters Ruler
Sewing Machine
Pins
Needle

How To

1. Cut 2 exterior pouch pieces measuring 13 by 8 inches, 2 interior pouch pieces measuring 13 by 8 inches and 2 pieces of light weight iron on interfacing measuring 13 by 8 inches.

2. Iron the interfacing onto the wrong side of you exterior fabric (if you havent used iron on interfacing before its the rough side with the adhesive on it that should be ironed onto the wrong side of the fabric using a hot dry heat).

3. Take an exterior piece of fabric, right side up, and an interior piece of fabric, right side down and pin along one of the long sides.

Pin the exterior and interior pieces together

4. Sew a quarter inch seam, press the seam open, then put the wrong sides together and press the seam down. Repeat with the remaining interior and exterior piece.

5. Pin your zip on the right side of one piece of exterior fabric where you pressed the seam. Measure in 7/8 inch from each side and pin this should be after the metal parts of the zip so they are hidden later. Practice opening the zip to check it wont catch the fabric when sewn.

6. Choose a thread to match the zip for the top stitch and a thread to match the interior fabric for the bottom stitch. If you have a zipper foot for your machine pop it on and move the needle over as far as it will go. Starting from where you pinned in Step 5 sew the zip in place approximately 2mm away from the zip, try not to sew over onto the lace part of the zip if you can help it. When sewing its easier to start at the bottom of the zip ie. not the puller end. Stop when you reach the horizontal pin at the bottom.

Whilst you are sewing check that you are catching the fabric in place.

7. Once you’ve sewn your zipper on check that it zips ok

8. Pin the other side of the zip to the right side of the remaining fabric piece, this may take a couple of trys until you get it just right. Open the zip to check it all looks ok and then sew down your zip as before, you may want to swap your zipper foot the other side first.

9. Phew for me thats the toughest bit the rest is just simple sewing in a straight line! Change your thread, put back on your original presser foot and move your needle back to its original position.

10. Next separate your interior fabrics from the exterior fabrics so both interior pieces are right side together and both exterior pieces are right side together. Pin and then sew a quarter inch seam along the bottom of both pieces. For the interior piece leave a gap a couple of inches wide in the middle, secure on both sides as you will be pulling the bag through it later (if you forget to do this like me just unpick part of the seam and secure either side with your sewing machine). Press your seams open.

11. Line up the seams so they are centred on the zip and press, make sure for the exterior piece this is lined up perfectly, if its not perfect you will end up with your zip and seam not lining up on your finished pouch so this is one step you want to double check.

12. Pin the exterior fabric shut at the end of the zip (not the zip pull end). You want to make sure the interior fabric is pulled back from the line you are going to sew as you don’t want to sew your interior fabric at the same time. I needed to unpick a few stitches where my Interior and exterior fabrics were sewn together in step 4. I sewed in about 7/8 inch from the edge and went over the zip a number of times.

13. Repeat for the other exterior fabric edge moving the zip pull out of the way. Cut the excess seam on both sides back down to 1/4 inch.

14. Now push the zipper so it is open, if you don’t do this now you wont be able to turn your pouch out the right way later on.

15. Zipper pulled back? Now sew up the ends on the interior fabric, as before keeping a 7/8 seam and then cutting back to 1/4 inch when finished

16. Now to make the corners all boxy. Pinch each corner, it may help to line up the corner at a 40 degree angle on your mat. Measure up 1 1/4 inch from the corner and mark a line in pencil. Your pencil line will measure approx 2 1/2 inch across. Repeat for all 8 corners and sew across each line.

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