Zipper Pouches

Sometimes, inspiration comes at the oddest moments. My daughter and I were going through my old make up box – throwing out old mascaras, bottles of foundation and nail polish bottles which no longer open. She is a girl who loves those Bonne Belle Lip Smackers so I gave her a few shimmery lip glosses to add to her collection.

We decided to see how many she had so we searched her bedroom and bathroom and came up over a dozen… which is a lot, considering she’s only 7. She didn’t have a good place to store them so they stayed together, so we decided to make a little Lip Gloss Zipper Pouch.

Hello Kitty fabric plus a pink lace zipper were the perfect combination for our lip gloss project. The Hello Kitty fabric is from Modes 4 U and if you love cute fabrics, you must pop on over to have a look. They have have huge selection of Hello Kitty fabrics so choosing can prove to be a little tricky.

To make this box pouch, I asked my Instragram friends how they go about sewing on a lace zipper. I’d bought a 3-pack recently, but had no idea how to actually sew them on. They pointed me in the right direction and I discovered some really great tutorials, including this one from For My Little Monsters.

In the end, I decided to use an exposed lace zip, box pouch tutorial from The Eternal Maker.

All you need is (2) 8” x 6” outer fabric, (2) 8” x 6” lining fabric and (2) 8” x 6” stabiliser (I used fusible pellon)… oh and of course the lace zip.

Admittedly, the lace zip was a little tricky to attach, but with a little perseverance, it worked in the end.

I was lucky to get a few photos, before it was swept away in squeals, to be filled with lip glosses.

So the story continues… not content with only one pouch, I decided to make another one. This one was to be for me and for my stitching bits and pieces. I love hand work and decided to make a little pouch to keep all of the aurifil spools which I am currently using, all together. I have a big box of them, but really don’t need to cart the whole thing around all of the time.

I followed the same basic instructions, but pieced some coordinating fabrics together for a slightly different look.

Again, this cute bunny & squirrel fabric is from Modes 4 U. I love the colour combination of orange, grey and light blue.

The top (2) bunny pieces measure 3” x 8.5” and the bottom orange piece measure 5.5” x 8.5”.

I fused the pellon to the back of the outer fabrics which gives this little pouch more stability. When I cut out my inner corners to make the “boxy” shape, I cut 3/4” so it’s not as tall as the Hello Kitty Lip Gloss Pouch.