Laminate Zipper Pouch with Lining

We had another great Austin Modern Quilt Guild Meeting last night, and the big event this time was a pouch swap. I jumped at the chance to participate, because I figured it was a good opportunity for me to get over some zipper fear. It turns out that fear just resulted in a lot of procrastination, because I didn't start on my pouch until yesterday.

Taadaa! Don't think this was the result on my first try, though. The first attempt was a raging disaster.

Not a pouch, more like an inside out cardboard folder.

The interfacing I picked was too stiff and I had all the wrong pieces sewn together. I'll pick it apart later and save all the parts.

Not bad. Functional with room for improvement.

For my second attempt, I followed Gina's tutorial. Thank goodness! I ended up with a baby pouch. The Pellon SP101 Interfacing didn't lend nearly the amount of structure and substance I was hoping for, though, and I didn't like how my zipper rounded off at both ends.

"This corner looks so good," she said after witnessing a miracle.

Queue this tutorial from Michelle at Michelle Patterns (formerly Keyka Lou). She demonstrates a little hand sewing one, two, punch! that helped my zipper-newb self make a beautiful pouch with greatly improved zipper corners.

Purple zipper. Yup, I buy only obnoxious colored zippers.

I wanted to make a giant pouch, so I used a 14" zipper. The laminate was pretty floppy, so I took Gina's suggestion and used canvas as interfacing. The lining was just a quilting cotton.

It's cavernous in there! IN THERE. In There. in there...

Thank goodness I was pleased with the result, because don't you know Gina ended up with my pouch in the swap! THE PRESSURE! Homegirl has probably only made about 10,000 pouches, purses, and assorted bags, meanwhile this is my first unsupervised foray into zipper wrangling. She remarked that you could tote a six-pack in this pouch, and to that I say, this pouch would be greatly honored ;-)

Happy zipper wrangling to all! I'm linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF).