Transcription
[Music] Looking at this pile of zipper pouches, you might think that I have a problem, and you're not wrong. I do. I am addicted to zippers and zipper pouches, and if you stay tuned, you might also have that same problem. Would you believe me if I said that all four of these zippered pouches came from just one piece of cork? I'm going to show you in this video my Phoebe pouch pattern, and we are going to make all four of these from one 18 by 27-inch piece of cork. I also used the same size for my lining. I chose waterproof canvas. I used a bunch of zippered scraps because I just really wanted to make these fun.
In this video, I'm also going to show you how to do three different techniques. That way, the next time you have a pattern in front of you and you say to yourself, "I don't really care for that technique," or "I'm not comfortable doing that technique," you're going to have a few options. First, my favorite technique to show any beginner or, you know, not bag maker is this one right here. It is a straight-across zipper. It does leave you with some dips on the side, but we're going to talk about that. But this one right here is a straight sandwich technique. So if you can make a PB&J, you can do this one.
We also have a zipper like this, which has tabs on the end. I think it really steps it up, makes it a little bit classier. It has its drawbacks; you can't open your bag quite as wide, but again, we're going to talk about that. I'm going to show you all the goods and the bads to each of these zippers. Last but not least, I'm also going to show you how to do a zipper with a little tail right here and these curved ends. They're all super simple, very beginner-friendly. And what you get to do in this video is you get to pick and choose which zipper technique you want to use in one of your bags or all of your bags.
I also am going to talk to you about making a bag flat and making a bag that has box corners. So all three of these right here have box corners and stand up on their own. This bonus little pencil pouch is is just a flat bag. It goes together even quicker than the other three. So I'm going to give you a supply list. I'm going to also show you all of the sizes that you'll need, and we're even going to do the cutting together. This video is going to take you start to finish through zippered pouches. You're going to be a whiz by the end of this.
So if you are new to bag making, if you've never made a bag, or if you've made a few bags and you just want to improve your skills a little bit, my fundamental skill-building classes are going to be perfect for you. This is just the first in a series, and I really hope that you're excited. I'm excited, so I can't wait to share this with you. If you like videos like this, don't forget to click subscribe, hit the notification bell, and give it a thumbs up. All right, let's go ahead and get into bag making and making our pouches.
And one quick note: I'm going to give you all the sizes and information you need in this video, but if you want to have a download that you can have right in front of you with the basic information as far as sizes, corners, etc., go ahead right over to my website. You can download that and you can have it sitting in front of you while you're working. All right, let's go.
So in most of my videos, even the free ones, I don't tend to do the cutting, um, just because I feel like a lot of people, or I guess I assume a lot of people already know how to cut and they don't really need any help with that. But just in case you're a little bit newer and you're not so sure, or you want to see any of the little tips and tricks that I do, um, stick around. I'm going to go ahead and cut all of my pouches out for you. If you're comfortable cutting and you don't need this, feel free to skip ahead.
What I am going to do on the next screen for everyone is I'm going to list all of the sizes. So out of the cork, I'm actually going to be cutting four pouches, so I will have eight pieces. So I'm going to put that screen up for you now so you can see, and then we'll jump back into cutting.
So now that you have all of the sizing information, we're going to go ahead and get into cutting. Now, the sizes that I determined, um, that I picked out, that is something I did a long time ago. I've done a few edits and tweaks, um, prior to this video just to make sure that everything worked number one with the cork sizes that I sell, but also with directional cork or directional fabric. That is not something that I took into account as much a long time ago, um, so I've definitely done that now. So we're going to talk about what I have here, what you can also substitute, and I'm going to go ahead and show you how to cut each of those pieces to get the best and the kind of the best bang out of your cork. Want to make sure that we get as much out of it as we can.
Now, with that being said, I am going right into a brand new solid piece of cork. You could be doing this from your scraps. You can also adjust the sizes as needed. Don't be afraid to play around with different sizes, making them bigger or smaller. Even if you had some scraps and you were a half-inch off on one of them, just cut your lining and your outside the same size, and you're good to go. This is a very beginner-friendly, um, kind of project, and it's also really great for working on skill-building, which is what we're here for, and for working on your confidence. Sometimes it's hard when you're new to say, "Well, the pattern says I need it to be 8 by 10, but I only have 7 and a half by 10." You can still make that work. I know that's not always the case depending on what you're sewing, but in this case, it totally is.
So what I have right here is a piece of cork. This is 18 high, so it's 18 this way, and it's 26 inches wide. I sell 18 by 27s. Most fat quarters of fabric are about 18 by 22, so just to kind of give you an idea on sizes. I did make sure to trim this and square it up, so I'm good to go. You can do the same thing. I just make sure that my short edges and my long edges are nice and square, removed the selvage, and I made it ready to cut. Underneath here, I also have a piece of waterproof canvas. I'm going to cut through all of the layers at once. So I'm going to cut a cork piece and a matching waterproof canvas piece because I need, I need them. If I'm doing two, two on the outside of cork, I need two on the inside of my lining. So I'm just going to cut it all at the same time because I think it's a little bit easier. As long as you have a sharp rotary blade and you have everything, you know, nice and trimmed and ready to go, you should have no problems at all with two layers. My waterproof canvas is right side up, my cork is right side up. For this particular project, it doesn't matter, but I typically like to have them right side up unless the pattern says otherwise.
Now, I am doing cork. If you don't want to use cork, you could also use vinyl. You could also use quilter's cotton or canvas. If this piece for the outside is going to be out of a woven fabric, I would definitely interface it, and I would interface it before cutting. Why bother cutting outsides and interfacings and then putting them together? If this whole piece was an interfacing piece of cotton, it would be so much easier. And the same for the lining. I'm using waterproof canvas, and it has this kind of rubbery back. This is technically an outdoor fabric, so in using this, I don't have to use any interfacing. If this was cotton, I would definitely be interfacing that. And if you want to do either of these from cotton, you would want to grab a half yard. You're going to have excess because of the size difference between cork and cotton, but it's just better to have it that way.
So now what we're going to do is start cutting the sizes that I have listed for you. So I have my cork and my waterproof canvas on my mat here. I have my ruler. I'm going to use my larger ruler for now. I might switch to my smaller one to do some of the sub-cutting, and I have my rotary cutter. This ruler is an 8 and a half inch wide ruler. Most quilting rulers are like 6, 6 and a half. You can use whatever you have. I like this size 'cause I feel like it, it just benefits me better when I'm cutting things. Bags in general tend to be a little bit on the larger side, so I really like this ruler.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to work from largest to smallest. And my largest pouch is going to be 10 and a half inches wide by 8 inches high. So what I like to do is I like to do a bigger cut and then kind of subcut it. And what I mean by that is I'm going to cut my width right here for both of them, and then I'm going to cut it in half. So 10 and a half times two is going to be 21. So I'm going to cut an 8-inch high by 21 and a half inch strip. That's just how I like to do it. You can do it however you want, but I'm going to turn my ruler because this is going to make it so easy. This is an 8 and a half inch ruler, so if I line up on my half-inch mark, and then I have my 21-inch mark over here, all I have to do is cut. And I'm careful in this corner to not overcut. I can a little bit, but I don't want to go too far, and I'm just going to cut like that. And then before I do anything, I just want to see. Yep, I got to go a little tiny bit more. That's pretty normal, but I'm trying not to overcut and cut into the next pouch size. So I'll just carefully, there we go. Come on. Okay.
So I'm just going to take these two pieces and kind of slide them out of the way. I've got my height. So now I need to cut this in half. I need two 10 and a half inch pieces. I'm just going to turn my ruler and cut like that. So now I have two outsides and two linings cut. That was that quick. So this is going to get set aside. This is going to be for the largest pouch.
Now I'm going to work on the medium pouch. And you may have noticed that my cork has a big kind of flaw in the middle. It is not your screen. Um, that's why I'm using this cork 'cause it's an unsellable piece. My pouch is just going to have a weird little spot, but I'm going to work it towards the bottom, and I think it'll be okay. We'll find out when it's done. So the medium size is going to be 8 and a half inches wide by 5 and a half high. So again, I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to do my 5 and a half, and then 8 and a half times two is going to be 17. So I'm just going to scoot this over, and I'm going to do my 5 and a half by 17, and then I'll cut that in half. Almost. We go. If I hadn't trimmed my cork down, I probably wouldn't be as concerned. I would probably just trim a little bit and I'd have excess, but I wanted to make sure that you saw exactly the, the correct sizes. All right, so I've got that. My height is done. I need to trim this into two 8 and a half inch wide pieces. There we go. Medium done with linings. I'll move that one over.
So now, pull this down here. I'm going to do my small size. And small is going to be, let me double check here 'cause I can't read my own handwriting, 7 by 4. So that's an easy one. So 14 by 4. And if you don't want to cut it this way, again, you don't have to. I just feel like it's more efficient, but you can cut each one individually. You can cut your, uh, lining and your, um, outside separately too. Do whatever is the most comfortable for you. Don't force anything just because it's the way that I do it or somebody else does it. I'm turning my piece because I wanted to just trim this little tiny bit of excess that is either because I trimmed it wrong to begin with, or because it kind of slid. So that's fine. All right, so these are now going to be seven. Okay, we're getting smaller and smaller. So there is 4 by 7. And now I have this weird little chunk left over, but this is going to become a little skinny kind of pencil pouch size. So I'm going to cut this into two 5 by 9. Now I can't do the same thing that I was doing. So I'm just going to trim this up a little bit. Going to make this easier on myself. Just going to straighten up this edge right here that is excess, or I can do something with it. And then I know that I want these to be 9 inches wide. So I'm going to trim this. See. All right, to 9 inches, like that. And I want two that are five. Double check. Sometimes things happen. So let me double check. Make sure I have my 10 inches, and I do. If for some reason I didn't, though, this would be a place where I would make an adjustment. So I'm just going to cut this into two 5-inch pieces, and I'm actually over a little tiny bit. So I'm going to trim this one down. Okay. And I've got it all cut. So there's my pencil pouch size. This is my excess, which I can put in my scrap pile, or I can, I can make a tiny little pouch. I could do really anything that I wanted to from here. For today, I'm just going to set this aside. I won't be doing anything with that. I've got my small size, my medium size, and my large size.
So now I'm ready to install my zippers. And each one of these is going to use a different zipper technique. So you can feel free to to mix and match and do it however you want. Um, I think I'm going to start probably with the largest and kind of just work my way down. I decided for the larger pouch that I'm going to do a zipper with tabs. So that's where we're going to start today. Now, I did tell you that I was putting this little scrap aside. My other scraps over there, I did grab it again because I'm going to need it to make my tabs, and I'll show you how to do that. We're going to do this all together. So on this small pouch right here, I have the tabs. That's how it's going to look when it's all finished. And what it means is that your zipper ends are enclosed in a piece of cork or fabric. And at the end here, it's technically open. There's a tiny little opening right here. It's very hard to see. It's not anything that I would be concerned, um, about losing things through. But what it also means is that your zipper doesn't open as far as some of the other techniques. So I've used this in a couple of patterns. I've used this in Charlotte as well as Linda. Um, I also have it in the Violet pattern, which is a larger bag, and it's totally fine to do. Do, but just keep in mind that by adding tabs, your opening gets smaller. On this small pouch right here, it works, but it does limit what you could get in there. If you had something that was, let's say, almost as wide as the inside of the pouch, you're going to kind of have to finagle it in there. So adding tabs looks really nice and finished, but it does change, um, how it's going to look and how it's going to function.
So what we're going to do here, I've got my large pieces. I have my two corks and my two, uh, lining pieces. I have my zipper, which I have not trimmed down yet. I did put my pull on, and I also have my scrap of cork. When it comes to zippers, you can use any zipper that you like that you can sew over and cut. This is a nylon zipper. This is a number five. A lot of people for a project like this, um, would tend to use a number three zipper, and that is totally fine too. I only use number five for everything. I just find it easier for myself, but a number three zipper is completely okay to use. Now, I'm doing this with a single zipper pull. You could add a second one if you wanted to kind of open your pouch this way. I think on a small project like this, it's a little wasteful of a zipper pull, but if that's something you want to use and you want to practice, if you're like the rest of us and you have so many zipper pulls and not enough projects, by all means, throw another one on here and you can have a double pull.
So what I'm going to do first is trim this down, and then I'm going to trim my pieces right here. When you're adding a zipper with tabs, you want the length of your zipper to be 1 and a half inches less than the width of your piece. So this one right here is the large, which is 10 and a half. There it is. So it's 10 and a half. So I want to take an inch and a half off my zipper, so that's going to be nine. So I'm just going to trim my ends. I want them both to be nice and straight. So I'm just going to trim a little from each side. And now let's line that up. Let's trim that. 18, 9 and 9 is 18. Okay, so 9, 9 inches. So that is how my zipper is going to look. So it's shorter now. And from my scrap, I'm going to cut two tabs. I like my tabs to be an inch in length. That's the part that's going to wrap around the zipper, and I cut mine an inch and a half wide. My zipper tape is, let's see, just slightly over an inch and a quarter. So instead of trying to be exact, I'd rather cut it a little wider and then it. So I'm going to cut two 1-inch by 1 and a half-inch squares. I did switch to a smaller ruler. I just think it's a lot easier to control. So I'm just going to cut an inch. And let's see, can I get them both out of here? I don't know what size my scrap is. It is, oh, it's exactly 3 inches, so yes, I can. Okay. Inch and a half.
All right, now in order to add this on, you can either use some clips or you can use some double-sided tape. I like tape, so I'm going to grab mine, and I'm just going to put a little bit of tape on the back side here. These are going to get wrapped this way, so I'm going to put the tape on these longer edges. I just think it's easier. You can absolutely use clips. You could even glue it if you wanted to. So now, and take my paper off, and I'm just, I kind of hold it in my hand and kind of fold it about in half. I don't want to stick it together, obviously. And then I'll stick that on the zipper and just kind of adjust a little bit, make sure that it's even. I want these edges even so that when I top stitch, I catch them both because I'll be top stitching from the front. So there's how that one looks. Okay. And it is sticking out on the ends here 'cause I'm going to trim it when I'm done sewing. If you want to make your tabs bigger, you can absolutely do that. If you want to make them wider and do more trimming, you can do that. If you want more cork to show and you want to take up more of the zipper, you can make these longer as well. I feel like an inch works because then I only have a half-inch on each end, just like on this one. It's just a little tab. I want my zipper to open as much as it can, and I'm already taking up some room. So this is just what works for me.
So after my cork is in place, I'm going to take it over to the sewing machine and do my stitching. I'm going to top stitch an eighth of an inch from each of these raw edges so that it's secured to the zipper. The fold down here does not need anything, and these edges right here, I'm not going to sew. They are going to get sewn into a seam, so it's totally fine. You don't have to worry about those. If you want to make this out of cotton, the only thing you're going to have to factor in is that you will need to tuck these edges under. You'll want to make sure that they are a finished edge instead of a raw edge because cotton will fray. So these edges right here, they're going to get sewn in, so you don't have to worry about those. It's just this one right here by the zipper. So what I would do is add a half an inch to the length of these. So these had started at one, I would make them 1 and a half inches long, and I would just fold under each of my edges a quarter of an inch before top stitching. That's going to make it nice and neat, and you won't have any raw edges.
So at the machine, I'm going to top stitch my eighth inch. I'll come back and trim, and then I'll show you how to add this into your pieces. I top stitched an eighth of an inch just on each of these raw edges, so now my tabs are secured to the zipper. I'm going to trim off the little bit of excess that is sticking out, just like that. Just a little tiny bit, but that little bit right there, I feel like helps me to be to look better than to try to figure out the exact measurement since my zipper was not quite exactly an inch and a quarter. So that's just me. I'm going to trim these little threads here, and then I'm going to just burn my edges lightly just to get rid of these threads. I'm using polyester thread, so I can do that. Okay, so now we are all set to add this to the pouch.
So I'm going to grab one of my outsides and one of my linings. I have everything right side up to start. My zipper is going to go in the middle here. So I'm going to take the paper off. I put some tape down. You can do this with clips, not a problem. If you're using cotton, you could also do it with pins. I would suggest if you're pinning, pin your zipper and your outside together first, then add your lining, and maybe add a few more pins instead of trying to do everything all at once. And I would do the same thing with clips too. Instead of trying to do all three pieces, get these two lined up, and then add your lining. It's just something that I've always been very adamant about. And also, if you're pinning, pin this way. Put your pins so they you're sticking out from the top. Just trust me, please. It's, if you put your pins down here, if they are going horizontally or even vertically, you can't see them. And if you hit that with your machine, you're not going to see it coming. If you put your pins out here, you can pull them out just the same place that you would put a clip.
So what I'm going to do here is I've got my tape. I'm going to grab some clips too, just to show you for the rest of these. I'm more than likely just going to add tape, but just so you can see how it would look if you're using clips. So I've got my tape here. I've got my zipper, and I want my zipper as centered as I can get it. You can find the centers if you want. I just like to eyeball it. I'm going to take my zipper right side down, so just like this, and I'm just going to try and kind of eyeball that. That looks pretty centered, and I'm going to place that right on the tape. All right. I am not concerned about my zipper pull and what direction it opens in because the zipper pouch doesn't have a front and a back. They're the same either way. Now, I do have this slight bubble from my zipper pull, which I will adjust while I'm at the machine. I'll make sure my zipper tape is nice and flat, but I've got it pretty centered, and I've got it where I want it.
So now I'm going to add my lining. I do have tape sticking out here, and I could put more tape on the lining, but instead, I'm going to use clips to show you how that looks. So I've got outside and zipper right sides together. I'm going to take my lining, and that's also going to be right sides together. So outside and lining right sides together, zipper in the middle. I'm going to use that little bit of tape right here, and then I'll clip like this, and there we go. All right, so that's how it's looking.
At the machine, I'm going to stitch a quarter of an inch all the way across here, making sure that I backstitch when I start and stop. So one more time, we've got our lining and our outside right sides together. This is either your interfacing, or for me, the back of my waterproof canvas. My zipper is right side down with the outside, so they're right sides together, and the lining is right sides together. All stitched using my quarter-inch seam. I did open my zipper while I was sewing, just so that the pull wasn't getting in the way of my quarter-inch foot. And while I did that, I did adjust that little bit of a bubble I had on the zipper tape. So at the machine, I had my needle down, I lifted up, and I just kind of move my pull. You'll see it's all the way over here. My zipper is open, and that little tiny bit where the pull was was kind of sticking out. I just took it off the tape, adjusted it, and then kept on sewing.
So now I'm going to do the same exact step on the opposite side, and then we'll do our top stitching. So I'm just going to open this up, so I have exposing the other half of the zipper. Because the cork and the waterproof canvas are a little bit on the stiffer side and they push against each other, I'm going to add a couple of clips down here. I won't be sewing, but it will just keep these pieces out of my way. So now I've got my other half of my zipper, and I'm going to add the other cork and the other lining piece. So again, I'm going to use tape. I'm actually going to put tape on both of my pieces this time instead of using any clips. So I'm just going to run a piece across here and across here. And I didn't mention this before, I think it's a little bit intuitive, but just also because I feel like I should mention, I'm always working on the top edge. So if I had a directional print, which I don't for today, but if you do, this is the top. So this is the top of the print. If I had something like this one, for instance, my skulls, where I want to make sure that this is upright, my tape would be up here. It would be on the top edge. If I put it down here, when it's in the finished pouch, the zipper will be up here, and that will be upside down. So I'm always working at the top edge. I apologize for not saying that earlier, but just so you know, hopefully I didn't have any issues. I didn't cause any problems for you. I may have. I do that sometimes, and I apologize.
Okay, right side up and right side up. So I always start with everything right side up. I just find it easier. I'm going to start with my outside. Take my paper off. My zipper needs to be right sides together with this piece. So my two corks will be right sides together. So this time, I'm going to line up these edges right here. I want everything to stay nice and square, and I'm going to add my zipper onto the tape or clips or pins. And I am going to get that little bubble again. That's all right. I'll fix it when I'm sewing. Just going to turn this so I can see what I'm doing. Okay, that is where I want it. And now I'm going to take my lining piece. I'll take my paper off of this one, and I want this right sides together with the lining. For some reason, this is where everybody gets a little bit confused, and I'm not sure why. Someday, I truly hope to find out how to say it better or to give you something to remember, but we're always putting Linings facing each other and outsides facing each other. They're always right sides together. And for some reason, people want to put this piece back there, and I don't know why. So I'm hoping to figure that out and someday have an answer for you and to say, "I know why you think that, but here's why it's incorrect," and I just don't know. I said I wasn't using clips, but I am. Just going to throw one in there just for fun because it's bulky. I'm not sewing anything bulkier than what I already sewed, but I'm working with something already stitched in place. So I fibbed. I'm using clips. I've got tapes, tape, and clips.
Okay, before I go to the machine, let's take one more look. Outside right sides together, lining right sides together. Zipper is in the middle. Zipper is right sides together with the outside side. That way it's out, it's on the, it's right side out when we're finished. I'm going to stitch a quarter of an inch all the way across here, making sure to backstitch, and then we'll chat about top stitching. Tabs are going to be top stitched a little bit differently than our other techniques. So let's talk about top stitching now that we have this all sewn together.
So what I'm doing is just kind of opening this up, so I have my two outsides facing up, and I have my two linings facing up. One thing that you want to keep in mind if you're using waterproof canvas is to make sure that this doesn't happen. It's what the fabric wants to do because it's kind of thick and a little on the stiff side, it wants to roll towards your zipper, and you absolutely don't want that to happen because then your zipper is going to get caught on your lining, and it's not going to work very well. So you can go to the iron and you can press this. I'm actually just going to finger press, and I'm going to use some clips to help me when I kind of straighten these pieces out. Give them a gentle tug. I'll just add a clip maybe down on the bottom edges here, and that's going to help to keep everything flat. Just kind of give that a tug. And at the machine, when I'm doing my top stitching, I will also kind of keep an eye on it. Top stitching is always done from the outside, so you have to be careful what's going on with the lining because you're not looking at it while you're top stitching, but I will kind of just be using my fingers and feeling along as I'm top stitching, making sure everything is flat. Again, if you want to go to the iron, you can press this, not a problem at all.
So from the front here, that's where I'm going to do my top stitching. I got everything the way that I want. You can see that I have gaps down here, and those gaps are exactly what we want. That's how we get this nice smooth edge when we have our, um, tabs in. It keeps everything nice and straight here. And again, it looks big here, but when it's all finished, when it's all finished, it really is not a problem at all. I've never had anything fall out because I have those little gaps. So at the machine, I am going to top stitch, and I'm only going to top stitch within where the zipper is. And what does that mean? It means I don't want to start and stop at the very edges. I want to start and stop no further than the tab. And what I also find, because this can get a little bit tight when we're finishing, I don't want to go all the way to the tab and risk going over a little bit. I actually kind of stop about halfway. So I don't want to go past the tab, but I also kind of like to stop kind of in the middle there. I just find that for a small project like this and for the tabs, it helps. It helps me to not struggle at the end and it helps to make my bag look better. So the maximum that you can top stitch is to the folded edge of your tabs, but if you want to keep it a little bit shorter, that's totally fine, and that's what I'm going to do. So I'm going to do an eighth of an inch. I don't want to go any further than that. Even a quarter of an inch is a little bit tight on this bag. I'm going to do an eighth of an inch top stitching, and I'm going to start and stop at about the halfway point of my tabs. I'll do that on both sides, and then we'll close this up and have a finished pouch.
So let's take a look at my top stitching, and then we're going to talk about our corners because we need to give this some depth and how to close this up. So from the front, everything looks good. It's a little hard to see my black top stitching. So let's turn that over. Easier to see the dark thread on the aqua. So there is my top stitching, an eighth of an inch from each side of the zipper. My zipper pull is opening and closing without catching. It's perfect. So I'm going to leave it open for right now. I need to do that anyway. You'll see that my top stitching is kind of starting and stopping here, even though my tabs go a little bit further, and that's what I want. I wanted that within the parameters of the tabs. If my top stitching was out here, you'll see how that's going to affect you when you try to close this up, and that's not what we want to do.
So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to cut my corners. Now, in each of these bags, I'm going to do it a little bit differently, um, only not differently for the cutting, but differently as far as what part of the process I cut it in. A lot of times my corners will be cut first, and you would already see them cut. Some people like to cut their corners at the end when they're done stitching. I'll show you how to do that as well. I'm kind of doing it at the halfway point, and I'll do each of the bags differently so you can see that it really doesn't matter, and you can kind of figure out how you want to do it. I'm going to use my corner, uh, box corner template. You could also do this with a ruler, it's not a problem at all. So what I want to do on this large pouch is I want to cut inch and a half corners from the bottom edges of the linings and the outsides. So this is my zipper, which is the top. I'm cutting it from down here and also here. And what I'm going to do is just mark, and I'll cut with scissors. So I'm just going to take my box corner template, I'm marking an inch and a half, and just marking like that. If you don't have that, you can use your ruler. Grab my smaller one, and you're just going to line this up, an inch, inch and a half, inch and a half, and mark. Once you have those done on all of your pieces, you're going to go ahead and trim, just like this, and we'll do that to all four pieces. So I'm going to go ahead and speed this up and get all my corners done.
All right, corners are all cut. So I've got my inch and a half cut from all four pieces. So I cut eight corners in total. So now to close this up, again, make sure that your zipper is open, very important. Grab your clips. You're going to take your two outsides and you're going to pull those right sides together. I'm going to clip down here on the bottom. We're going to address the center seam where the zipper is in just a moment. I just want to get this kind of clipped and ready to go. I've got my two lining pieces also right sides together. Do the same thing here. And now we're going to work on the side. So the most important thing is that our side seam is lined up, and we've got that gap here, and that's why we wanted to make sure we didn't go overboard on our top stitching right here where the zipper is. And the cork, it's a little bit stiff, so don't be afraid to kind of push it. We're going to take these seams and nest them, and that just means that they go in opposite directions. So I'm going to pull this one to the left, push that one to the right, get those right lined up with each other, add a clip, and then I'm going to just finish clipping down this side. Same over here. If your corners aren't perfect, we'll have a little bit of room to fudge, and I'll show you that when we get to the corners. So there is this side. It looks weird. It doesn't look totally lined up, but it is. I can promise you this. Just needs to kind of be pushed together. When it's at the machine, we'll do the same thing over here. So again, we want to nest these going in opposite directions. It's a little awkward because of the zipper. You're not sewing through the zipper, but it's in there, so it's like pushing against you. All right, add some clips and some clips.
Okay, at the machine, we're going to sew everything except the corners. So we're going to sew these two long sides that go across the outside and lining. We're not catching the zipper, but just go slow when you get there because sometimes it's, it's in the way, just because it's kind of pushing against your foot. You may have to try a different foot if your quarter-inch foot is on the wider side, and I'll kind of test that out when I get to the machine. I think mine should be fine, but if I need to, I can adjust it. So I'm going to sew down here on the outside. I'm going to sew all the way across, and on the lining, I'm going to sew across the bottom, but I want to leave an opening. I'm going to turn my bag through here, so I don't like to sew a lot. I like to get about that much, maybe about an inch or so on each side. This is going to be open. I need to get my hand in here and turn the bag through it. Once that's done, we'll box the corners. So for right now, these areas right here will not have any stitching. Sides, bottom, lining with an opening.
So now that this is stitched up, let's box the corners and also talk about why your lining might look a little bit bubbly and weird like mine does. So when you see the outside, you see how nice and smooth it is. That is what the outside tends to look like, and lining sometimes does this. It's not because it's wrong or because you did anything incorrectly. It's just kind of what happens. It will lay flat, but right here where we have that zipper and we have the tab, sometimes it gets a little bit wonky, and I'm here to tell you that every one of my bags looks like this. Yours is not wrong, and when it's all done, nobody's going to see it because there's nothing wrong. There's nothing to see. When we look at this when it's all complete, that little bubbly weird part of the lining is all the way up here, kind of hidden, and it's not going to be a problem. This will not hinder anything. So it looks weird, but it's going to be good real soon.
So in order to box the corners, what we're basically doing is we're adding depth to the bag and we're pulling these edges together and flattening this out. So I just kind of get in here and flatten this out, and don't be afraid to pull. What it wants to do is point, and what you want it to do is be flat, flat, and straight, just like that. That's how that one looks. Do the same thing over here. So keep it from doing this, just kind of give it a gentle tug, push those seams in opposite directions. It kind of locks them together and makes for a nice clean seam. There's that one, and we're going to do the same on the lining. Give this a nice tug. Now, for the remainder of this video, for the rest of the bags, I'm not going to be going into as much detail on boxing the corners, etc. Every one of these bags is going to be done the same way when it comes to closing it up. Any little minor adjustments depending on the zipper, I'll show you, but I'm not going to get into great detail. If you need to rewind and go back, if you're a brand new bag maker, you can watch this again, but I will basically just be walking you through it and saying, "And now we're going to box the corners," or I might even do it off camera, just to give you a heads up.
One last little thing, this right here where that little edge is kind of peeking out, that means one of two things happens. Either I didn't cut it accurately, totally possible, or I didn't stitch it accurately, and something shifted. You can trim this if you want to, but what I'm going to do is just ignore it. I'm just going to pretend it's not there, put my clip here, and when I'm sewing my quarter of an inch, it will be measured from here and from here, and I'll just forget that little extra piece of fabric is even there at all. Once I get to the sewing machine, I'm going to do those edges, or my corners, I'm going to get those stitched, and then we're going to turn it right side out. The last thing we'll need to do is close up the lining. Other than that, all of our top stitching and everything is complete, and I'll come back and show you how this looks when it's done.
Since I'm going to the machine, I am going to turn it and, uh, close up my lining. And I just tuck my edges under, and I stitch across it using my, like, eighth inch seam allowance. It's, uh, not anything in particular, nothing crazy that I do. And if you want to stitch it by hand, you absolutely can. I won't discourage you from doing that, I just won't do that myself. So I'm going to go sew my four corners, turn it right side out, close up my lining, and then we'll come back for a final look.
Boxed all my corners, and I did stitch my lining closed. That's how it looks. Probably could have changed my thread color, but, you know, I'm not going to. So it's just in the bottom of the bag. I don't think it's super important. So got my lining closed. Just going to tuck this in, and we'll take a final look at how our pouch looks with tabs. I'm just going to get in there and push that. So now our bag, of course, looks a little bit crazy. Going to take my thumb and my index.
Finger and kind of pop that corner out. Do the same thing over here, and by doing that, I can kind of smooth that out. My St my edge, my top edge is nice and straight, just like that. My corners have the slightest little dip to them, which is totally normal. You'll see as we go on with some of the other techniques how different ones will kind of affect how that side looks and how that little, I call it the dip, how deep the dip is. So that is how that is looking. I think it looks fantastic with the tabs. Again, tabs are great for the cleanliness. I love how they keep everything nice and smooth. It makes the zipper look really finished. It does limit how far the bag opens, but this pouch is the largest size and and I think it works just fine. So that is going to be number one.
For number two, we're going to work on our medium size, which I'm going to grab. So here is our medium, and this one, no, your eyes are not blurry. I do have this is the one that has the little bloop on here, but that's okay. For this one, I think I'm going to just go ahead and do a standard zipper, which is going to give us the deepest dip, if that makes any sense. Let me grab a finished one, I'll show you how that looks. So right here, this is going to be what I think is probably the simplest and easiest and most beginner basic technique, but it comes at a price. You're going to get these dips right here on your corners because your zipper is fully sewn into the side seams. So that's just something that happens. It's not the end of the world, and again, it's a great place to start if you are a beginner and you're not quite wrapping your head around tabs or any of the other techniques, but I totally understand that it can be frustrating for some people. So we're going to go ahead and get this one started. I'm going to grab my zipper and my supplies, and I'll show you how to do the medium one.
For the medium-sized pouch, we are going to do what I call just a regular zipper. I don't really have a great name for it. Um, maybe we'll call it the beginner zipper. This is going to be the one that gives you kind of these little dips in the corner, but that is because we were sewing the zipper straight across and putting it into the side seams. So the great thing about this, as opposed to the one with the tabs, is that we just need to have a longer zipper, and it's not really crucial that it's any particular length. I I like to go a few inches longer than my pouch, and we're ready to jump right in. We don't have to add tabs or do anything special. We can just jump right in and make the bag. So the only thing I did is I cut my corners just to make sure that those were done first. I wanted to do them a little bit differently in each one to show you that it really doesn't matter. You can find the technique and the timing that you want for your corners. I cut mine before. That's normally how I do it. The first bag, I cut it kind of halfway through. It doesn't make a difference. So on the medium pouch, I cut my corners 1 inch, so they're a little bit smaller because the bag is a little bit smaller. I'm going to set half of it aside. I've got one of my outsides and one of my linings for my zipper. It's massively long. I understand that. I've already put on my pull, and I am going to trim my zipper down. I am going to make my zipper about 2 to 3 inches wider than the widest part of my bag. So I'm just going to come down here and just kind of hack a little bit off. Again, not super precise. We just want to have a little bit of room because what I like to do with this is sew with my zipper pull kind of hanging off the edge, and then when it's time to close it up, I worry about where it is. I find that that is a super easy way for beginners to start. For this one, I'm not going to use any tape. I'm just going to use my clips, just kind of the mood that I'm in right now. So we're going to do the same thing we did before, and we're going to make our sandwich with the zipper in the middle. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to move my zipper pull all the way down to the end, and I'm going to let it hang off the edge. I'm not concerned about it right now. I'm going to start with my outside. My outside is right side up. My zipper is going to be right side down with the outside. So just like that, my zipper pull is hanging off the edge. That's totally cool, and I'm just going to add a couple of clips here. I find that by doing that, I didn't like that clip. I find that by doing that, my zipper pull does not have to be moved, and it doesn't get in my way. It just kind of hangs on the side, doesn't bother anybody. So I'm going to do that. I've got these two right sides together, and I'm going to take my lining and put that right side down. So outside and lining right sides together, zipper is in the middle. This is the same exact uh technique that we used with the tabs, just a different zipper. So I'm going to sew a quarter of an inch all the way across here, making sure to backstitch when I'm done. I will repeat this step with my other two pieces, just like we did before, and then we'll talk about how this one is different when it comes to closing. So I've got my first half done. I'm going to repeat this on the opposite side. So I'm going to open this up, put those pieces wrong sides together. I have not topstitched. I will do that at the end, after my zipper is in. You can topstitch now, but I just find if I'm going to change my foot, I'd rather topstitch when both halves are on. Just makes more sense to me. So we're going to do the same thing that we did before. We're going to take this outside and it's going to go right side down with the zipper. Add some clips, and then I'm going to turn this over, and I'm going to put my lining right side down. So linings are right sides together, outsides are right sides together. Going to do the same exact thing, clip this in place, stitch a quarter of an inch all the way across. My zipper pull is still hanging off the edge, and that is totally okay. And then we're going to talk about how to close this up and how to finish it.
After you have your pieces sewn in, we are going to topstitch. And unlike before, where you needed to stop at a certain point, with this one, you can topstitch all the way across. But here's a few things to keep in mind again about this technique right here. I'm just kind of flattening mine out like I did before, just not. I just don't feel like ironing because I just don't think it does as much as I want it to, so why bother? So I'm just kind of flattening those edges out, pulling my lining away from my zipper. So when it comes to topstitching, you have a few options, and I'll tell you why I like and dislike some of them. So I am going to just topstitch all the way across, an eighth of an inch across here and across here, just like I did before, going from edge to edge. I want to keep that at an eighth of an inch, no more, because the more that I topstitch, the deeper that the dip on the side gets. So what you might say is, well, do I have to topstitch? Wouldn't that help? And absolutely it would. You could totally skip the topstitching, and back when I used to make bags out of cotton inside and out, I did skip the topstitching. With these materials right here, especially with the waterproof canvas, I feel like I would be setting myself up for issues if I did not topstitch at all. I feel like what is going to happen is that my waterproof canvas is going to roll into the zipper, it's going to get caught, and it's going to cause an issue. Now, if you're using cotton or something that presses and really holds a a crease, you could probably skip your topstitching altogether. What some other people like to do, some other bag makers, is topstitch only the outside. So they're topstitching the outside so it's nice and flat against the zipper, it looks really pretty, and they're again ignoring the lining. That is also going to make these little dips less prominent. Again, with doing that, because of what I'm using for lining, I just don't feel like that's a smart idea for me. So I'm going to go ahead and just topstitch through both layers all the way across. I am accepting the fact that my sides are going to have that angle to them, they're not going to be totally straight, and I'm fine with that because again, this is a super easy beginner-friendly uh way to put in a zipper. So once I have that done, we'll talk about how to close up our sides and how to get this dip to the least amount that we possibly can. Topstitching is complete through both layers.
So now it's time to close it up, and we do care about the zipper pull. We didn't care before, but now we definitely do. So you want to move your zipper pull into the bag. Make sure that it is within the bag, very important. And we're going to take our outsides right sides together and our linings right sides together. And when it comes to the center where that zipper is, there's a couple things that you want to do with this technique. You want to make sure number one that your teeth are going in the same direction. We don't want to flip our zipper teeth because what's going to happen is you're going to get this weird um twist at the end. So you want your zipper teeth together. You also want them going towards the lining. So mine are kind of already doing that, but I'll show you exactly what I mean. So on this side right here, I'm just straightening out my edges, and I'm saving my zipper kind of until the end. And I have my zipper teeth, they're going towards the lining, both of them. What I don't want is for this one to turn this way. I want them both going towards the lining. And what's going to happen is your zipper teeth, because of the way that the zipper is put together, they want to sit on top of each other, but we can't sew over that. So they kind of have to be sitting next to each other. And I'm going to see if I can clip this and get it zoomed in so you can really see what I mean. The side where it's open is always, always the easier one. I kind of started on this that side, which is cheating a little bit, but you'll see. There's my zipper teeth. They are right next to each other. They are not on top of each other. I don't want to break a needle, and my zipper teeth are towards the lining. So just like that, I'm trying to get this seam as lined up as I can, knowing that it may not totally be perfect, and I'm okay with that. So now over here, this is the little bit more difficult side. I'm going to clip and clip down here, and my zipper teeth are still connected together. So I'm just going to push them towards the lining. They're over here, and I'm going to try to turn them so that they're flat. I don't want to try to sew with them upright. So I'm just kind of pushing them flat. This technique is simple, but it's never going to be the prettiest technique. I'll be totally upfront with you. It's just a great way to get comfortable with zippers. If you were anything like I was when I started bag making, I was terrified of zippers. I thought they were the most frightening, horrendous thing ever. I did not want to put them in. I didn't want anything to do with it. I convinced my friends that nobody used zippered pockets, just so I could avoid zippers. So once I got comfortable and I found this technique, I kind of discovered this as I was playing around with all sorts of patterns and things that I saw, and I kind of made a simplified version of this technique for myself. Once I did this, I felt like I was on top of the world. I was like, oh, I can put in a zipper, and so can you. So this is a great one to start with. Why did we start with the one with tabs? Because I just wanted to start with the larger pouch, and I thought the tabs looked cute on that. But again, you can start wherever you want. The timestamps in this video will tell you that this is the beginner one, and yes, it's technically technique number two, but that's okay.
So now we're going to go back to the machine and do the exact same thing that we did before. There's really no changes on this one. We're sewing the sides, across the bottom, leaving an opening, the bottom of the lining, and boxing the corners before turning it right side out. Trim up the ends of the zipper even with the bag. That's the only difference that we have to do. I'll turn it right side out and I'll close my lining. So I'm going to go ahead and do all those things since I'm at my machine. So one more time, just like from the beginning, we're going to go down the sides, across the outside bottom, across the lining bottom, leaving an opening for turning. We're going to box all four corners, trim our zippers, and turn it right side out, and then close up the lining. So I've got this all finished up. I sewed my sides, my bottom, I left an opening in the lining, boxed my corners, I turned it, and I closed my lining up. So let's take a final look at this style, and then we will compare it to the style with tabs. I'm just going to tuck that in. All right, and you'll see here, I'm I'm pulling this as much as I can. I'm still getting those little dips in the corner. It's just the way that it is because of this technique. I'll straighten this out now. What I do want to show you, and yes, these are two different sizes, but as you can see, the bag where the zipper is sewn into the ends, you can really open that up and get a lot of things in there, and you can see everything. The one with the tabs, you're not going to quite get as much of an opening. I think the tabs look cleaner than this one. Let's see how it looks when we close it. We can see we've got a very small little angle on that one, much larger one on this one. There's how they look side by side. So either of those techniques can be interchanged. They can be used in in the pouches, or really, if you have any kind of bag with a top zipper, you could swap those. So now that we have this, we're going to grab our smaller size pouches, and we're going to work on one final technique.
For the smallest size pouch, we're going to do a curved end zipper, which has a zipper tail, and that's going to look like this when it's all finished. So for this one, we're going to do some prep work on the zipper. We need to curve our ends away from the pull. That's how we're going to make sure the pull doesn't come off. And with this style, we get probably the biggest opening possible, but you're going to have to finish your zipper end. So you're going to have one end that kind of hangs off. You can use a zipper end like I have here, you can make a tab out of cork, whatever uh style works the best for you. So this one right here is definitely going to be what I think is the most fussy, just because we're going to have to prep our zipper. We have to do some markings. We have to kind of be careful where we sew. Not difficult at all, but just the fussiest. When it's done, you get the largest opening, though. So there's always going to be a payoff for whichever technique you're using. So what I need to do is grab my zipper, and just like I did for the medium-sized pouch, I want my zipper to be about 3 inches longer than my piece right here. So I'm going to go ahead and grab grab my zipper. I am just using up zipper scrap, so I'm kind of just using whatever I have. I'm going to cut this about right here. Longer is always fine um for any of the zippers except the one with tabs. I'm going to get my zipper pull as well, and when I put my zipper pull on, I actually don't have to be too concerned about how straight and even I get it because I need to open one of the ends. So I'm going to go ahead and put that on, and you'll see there is a big old bubble, but that is totally fine because when I get down here, I need to open that end anyway. This is going to be the the end where I curve, and I'm going to put that into the seam allowance. So it's going to look just like this one here. So what we need to do is curve the ends away from the zipper pull. You can do this at your machine, or you can do this with your stapler if you have one. That's what I'm going to use. And so what I'm going to do here is I need to curve my end like so. So I'm just going to fold it back first, make a little crease in the zipper tape, and then I kind of move the teeth over. So I'm kind of going back and then over. I'm going to add a staple because I just think it's super easy to do that. I could also take this to the machine and put some stitches in. Now, the right side is always easy. The left side I always struggle with because my fingers are exactly where I need the stapler to be. So bear with me for a minute. It's going to take me just a second to get there. So I want to make sure that these are as even as I can get them. So I'm folding back, there's my crease, and I need to put my crease right up towards the zipper teeth, and where are my fingers? Exactly where I need my stapler. So let's see if I can clip that just for a minute, and then I can get my stapler in there, or I could put a pin in this, take it to the sewing machine, and I can stitch it. I can also burn my ends and kind of melt them together. I don't always have luck with that. I think I'm just afraid to burn my fingers, so I don't want to melt anything and then try to push it together. It's just me. Okay, so that's how that end is looking. On this end, I don't have anything yet. I like to wait until the end when the pouch is complete to put something here. Since I have my stapler, I am going to just add a couple staples that way while I'm working, my pull doesn't come off. Anything that I staple, you could easily do at your sewing machine. So let's take a close look here, just going to bring that in for you. So I bent backwards and then over, there's my little crease, backwards and then over. So I have my zipper teeth going away from the zipper. Make sure that this is stapled, stitched, or melted, and then put something down here, a clip, a pin, a staple, a few stitches, just to make sure you don't lose your pull. So for this one, I'm going to get this just about ready for assembly, and then I'll cut my corners. Um, we're doing them kind of in different steps, just to show you that you can do them wherever, wherever you want to. If you want to prep them now, they're going to be half-inch corners. If you want to wait until the end, like I am, we'll do it together. So now I'm going to move halfway. I'm going to start just like I did for the first two, with one lining and one outside, except this time I need to make some marks, and I only do them on the outside. You can mark them on both pieces right now, you can just do one. I'm just going to do one for now. I need to mark a half-inch in, and I'm at the top edge. So this again, if I have a directional print, is the top. Just marking a half-inch, using my box corner template, cuz it was nearby, and those half-inch marks are going to be where we start and end the zipper when we sew in this style zipper. We have to leave some room from the edge, otherwise we won't be able to close it up, and we don't want to sew this end in because it needs to stay loose. So we need to have some marks so we know exactly where to start and stop. So now what I'm going to do is I am going to use tape for this. I find that tape is the best for this method. Use clips or pins if that's your um preference, but I want to use tape, and I am going to put the tape all the way across. Even though I'm only putting the zipper in between those marks, I also have my lining piece to go on, and that will stick onto the tape. So I'm just going to put a piece all the way across, pull my paper off. I went a little bit too far, so I'll just tuck that over. Okay, so now what we're going to do is take our zipper again, right side down, and we're going to flip this over, and I like to open my zipper. I find that having just one half to work with is so much easier. I want this curve at that half-inch mark. So I'm going to place this here, and then I'm going to line up my zipper tape even across the top here. So there is my half-inch mark. Now I'm just going to line this up, and when I get to the second half-inch mark, what I'm going to do is pull my zipper away. I want to pull it out of the way. I don't want to stitch any further than that half-inch mark. So what I'm kind of doing is before I get to the half-inch mark, I'm starting to kind of pull it down. I will use a clip just on that spot. I don't want to get a crease or anything in in there, but I just want to kind of be pulling that away so that by the time I get to that half-inch mark, I'm not going to catch it. I am also going to add a clip here. I just find that that helps me out a lot, just to keep everything out of the way except that side. So let's pull this in so you can take a closer look. There's my half-inch mark, that's where my curve is, it's going off, and this is where I'm starting to pull it down right at that half-inch mark. I want to pull the zipper down. Now I'm going to take my lining piece, right sides together, just like before, and I'm going to add that on. Use some tape and some clips like that, and just like we've done, you might have to kind of work it a little bit at the machine because it's kind of lumpy because of the zipper, but once we get to the machine, we can kind of adjust it a little bit. Now, did you guess what we're going to do next? We are going to sew our quarter of an inch all the way across. So even though the zipper is short, we're still going all the way across the fabric. So I'm going to do that, make sure I backstitch, and then we'll work on the other half of the zipper.
So I've got my first half already stitched in, and now what I'm going to do is open this up so I can get to the other side of the zipper. I'm just going to add some clips. I'm not pressing. You can press if you want. When it comes to topstitching this style zipper, we are not going to do that until the bag is complete. So for the other two styles, we did that before we did the construction steps. For this one, we're not going to do that. We're actually going to wait. When the bag is totally done, then you'll do your topstitching. So the reason that I closed my zipper up is I find that it's easier to get it lined up to at least start, and then I'll open my zipper back up. I also want to make sure that I don't twist anything because it's super easy to accidentally twist it when it's open. So I'm going to start with it closed, and then I'll open. I'll show you what I mean. So on this piece right here, I'm going to do what I did the first time. I'm going to put some tape right along this edge right here. This is my top edge. Take my paper off, and before I go too far, I need to mark my half-inch marks. So I'm just going to mark those now. I'm using a heat erasable pen, so even though mine are a little bit lower than the seam allowance, I can erase them. It's not a problem. And I took the paper off. Now I'm stuck to my piece. There's my half-inch marks. So now what I'm going to do is take this, and I want this right sides together, and I'm going to start down here so I can get this lined up. I'm going to have a clip on standby, and then I'll show you how I open this up. I just want to make sure nothing gets twisted. So I'm lining up the sides here. I'm going to take my zipper and just open it a little tiny bit, just to get that pull out of my way. I'm going to put this right here. Take a look. I'm way too far over. So let's go. There we go. All right, and your zipper ends might not be perfect because your um curves might not have aligned up completely, and mine are pretty close, but as you can see, I'm a little closer on this side, I'm a little bit further away, and it's totally fine. Now that I have that on there, now I'm going to unzip, and then I can move that out of the way. I'm going to place this right on that tape, and at that half-inch mark, I'm going to start curving down, keeping that out of the way. I add a clip down here, and then up here, I'm just going to fuss with that just a little bit. Got that where I want it. Lining piece right side down, same exact thing. At the machine, sewing a quarter of an inch all the way across. I'll make sure I backstitch, and then we'll talk about closing it up and cutting our corners.
Side two is all stitched. So I'm going to take my clips out here and to open this up, and I'm going to close up my zipper, just so I can double check, make sure everything looks the way that I want it. All right, there we go. My curves are, they're pretty lined up. Sometimes they will be a little bit off. Don't stress about it. It's hard to get them to be identical. You're going to do the best job that you can, though. Down here, my zipper is not sewn in all the way to the end, which is exactly what I want. So now we are not topstitching. We're skipping that completely. I am going to open the zipper up again, and I'm going to pull my outsides right sides together, and I'm going to pull my linings together. I haven't cut or marked my corners yet because I'm going to do that after I do some stitching. A lot of uh bag makers like to do the corners kind of last because they feel like they're more reinforced and it's easier with the edges together. You also will end up cutting four corners instead of eight because you're cutting through double layers. It's really up to you, but I'm just showing you the different techniques so you can decide how you like to do it best. What I'm going to do here for my seams is I'm going to nest them again. I am turning in opposite directions. I do find that this little area is the cleanest with this style zipper because there's really nothing in the way down here. We want to make sure that this zipper is inside. Do not sew it with it in the seam allowance, that's going to defeat what we just did. So you want to tuck that in, just like so, get our edges together, line up our seams. All right, so now I'm going to sew what I've been doing. I'm going to do my long sides, across my bottom, make sure that that zipper is not sticking out, we don't want to see it, and I'm going to leave an opening in the lining. I do still have to do my corners, and for this size bag, I do half-inch corners. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of guesstimate where a half-inch is, and I'm going to reinforce a little extra with my stitches. I'll come over here, cut my corners, and then I'll be able to box them. So I'll show you what I mean. I'm going to get this stitched, and then I'll show you how you can cut your corners last. I did all my stitching and I reinforced my corners at what I think is going to be the half-inch point. If I'm wrong, I'm going to have to go in and reinforce them before I do any um pulling. I don't really want my seams to come out, so that is one of the reasons why I don't love doing my corners this way, but some people really do. Um, I did run out a bobbin, which is why I have some purple thread over here because I'm just using up my leftover bobbins. Um, so what I'm going to do here, I think I can already see that one of these corners is not going to be quite right, but let's see. Oh, maybe I'm wrong. Wow, I like I like being wrong this time. Okay, my corners are a half an inch. That is tiny. I'm just telling you, they are teeny tiny, but it does make your bag stand up. Here is the smallest size finish. So it does have enough depth to it. It's empty right now, but it will um give it some depth. Half-inch is tiny. You're probably not going to love these corners if you don't want any depth to your bag. If you want to just leave your bag flat, you can do that as well, and that's what I'm going to do in the final bag. I have not decided on what zipper technique I want to use yet, but what I'm going to do for the final one is I'm just going to leave it flat, so it's like a flat little pencil pouch, and I'll show you how that works. So now I have those done. I'm looking to make sure, and I think I have reinforced where I'm going to be cutting. All right, so maybe this one, I might cut this one at the machine and just add a couple extra stitches. The rest of them feel okay to me. So I'm going to go ahead and cut. When you do your corners this way, again, you only have to mark and cut four of them because you're cutting through two layers at once, but you do have to make sure that you really reinforce those stitches, cuz you don't want to pull this seam out. So it's totally up to you. I think my favorite is to mark them from the very beginning, just have them ready to go before I sew my zipper in. Um, all right, I'm going to cut this one. I'm just not going to uh pull it. Not going to box this corner until I get to the machine. So I've got those cut. I just want to show you on one of these because they can be a little bit tricky since they're so tiny, how do you even get your hands in there? You kind of don't. So I find that pulling like this is easier than trying to get my fingers in there because that is way too small. And once I pull that out, my quarter-inch seams with my half-inch uh box, they kind of just line up really nicely, and then we'll sew right across there. So it works out. It is just really tiny. I'm going to go to the machine, I'm going to box these corners, turn it, and close my lining, and then we'll take a look at all three of our zipper techniques. And I'm going to put some thought into what kind of zipper I want to put in my last pouch.
Final look for bag number three. So I have my uh corners boxed, and I closed my lining. So when I'm looking from this side, you can see that I have my zipper ends kind of tucked in, but they are away from the seam allowance. That was super easy to finish up too. I can unzip all the way now. I'm not quite there, am I stuck? I'm stuck. What am I stuck on? Come on, there we go. Same on this end. There's that. That was a moment, huh? All right, we're going to tuck that in and and tuck this in like that, and look how wide that bag opens. I love that. So now that I have that done, we can go ahead and topstitch. I will address the zipper end when I'm completely done. I will probably trim this down a little bit, but for now, let's just talk about topstitching. This one I find is the easiest, but also the hardest to topstitch. And what I mean by that is my topstitching can can be at this point, whatever I want. I can do an eighth, a quarter, I can do anything that I like. What I find difficult is I do not have a free arm on my sewing machine. Even if I did, I don't know that that would help me too much, but without using a free arm, I don't really have any place to put this. So I find that it's easier on a small bag to stitch from the inside. If this bag was larger, I would probably press it flat like this and stitch from the outside. So I'm going to see exactly what my machine is feeling like today, how I'm feeling, but I'm going to get my topstitching done. When that's complete, I will trim up my zipper a little bit, and I will add a zipper end. So I'm going to go fuss with this at my machine, and I'll be back.
So final look on this one. I did do a quarter of an inch topstitching. I typically do eighth. I just wanted to see how I felt about it. Um, I still really like the eighth inch better. I think I'm so used to doing that now that the quarter inch just doesn't feel as finished to me, but it's totally fine. If you disagree and if you like quarter inch, that's what you should definitely do. So this one is all done. I'm going to zip that up. On this end right here, I can cut this wherever I want. If I want to cut it really short, and I can do that. If I want to leave it a little bit longer, you don't want to cut it right up against here because you do still need to finish the end. So I think I'm going to take off maybe about half. I think that feels good. And then what I'm going to do is just add on a zipper end like I did on this this one, or if I want, I can use one of my cork scraps. Um, I have some from cutting the corners. I can just take a piece of that and fold it over the end and leave that totally flat, whatever I decide to do, as long as I have something here. So one of the questions that I was asked while I was talking to some of my Patreons about this particular video and prepping for it was, can we do this style zipper but have both ends curve? So both of the ends would curve into the pouch. And I played around with that idea for a while. I actually did it on a bag a long time ago, and my hesitation in that is that on this end, so this is a curve, and this is a curve, so they would both look like this. This end doesn't have anything keeping it together. And so I find, and I found this on the bag where I tried it, and this was several years ago, that when it's in the bag, it's very easy for this to open up because it just kind of separates. It doesn't have anywhere to go. And I'm just afraid for the usage of the bag, or even just for the looks, that eventually that's just not going to cut it, that it's just going to be kind of more problematic than anything. So I am not going to do this style. If you want to experiment with that, by all means, absolutely you should. I'm just not really a huge fan because I just don't feel like it's as sturdy. If you want to play around with that at all, I'll tell you what I did here to get the correct size is I cut my zipper the exact same width as my cut piece. So this small one was uh 7 inches wide, so I cut my zipper 7, and then that gave me enough room to do my curves. And by the time I was done with the stitching or the stapling on here, in this case, it actually fit on here perfectly. But again, I just don't feel super comfortable. I don't think this is going to be as durable. So I am not going to use this zipper technique. What I am going to do is grab my last couple of pieces, and I am going to put a zipper in this one, and I'm going to do this one without corners. So this one is going to be totally flat because I want this to be like a little pencil pouch. I think I'm going to do the curved end technique. I think that's going to give me the nicest opening. It's going to keep everything um rooming, and I think it looks really sweet. So I'm going to go ahead and grab a zipper. I'm going to get this one started. I'm probably not going to do the entire thing on camera, except when I get to the corners. So I'm going to start my prep work. I'm going to get to the machine, get this all started, and then when it comes time to skip the corners, I'll show you what you're going to do, and we'll take a final look at this one.
So I have my zipper sewn in place. I did the curved end zipper, so my tail is kind of tucked in here, and my other end is stitched in. For this one, I'm not going to cut any corners at all. So the way that you're going to close this, it's actually very simple. Instead of having to worry about doing the sides and the bottom, etc., and skipping the corners, we're just going to kind of go all the way around, leaving that opening in the lining. So my lining is right here. So what I'm going to do is again, leave a big opening, and I'm going to start stitching here. I'll go over all the way across, all the way around until I get to here, and I'll stop. So I all I all I have to do is turn the bag. I don't actually have to start and stop. I don't have to worry about corners. Once that's done, I will pull it through the lining, and I won't cut any corners. I'll have a flat bag, and I'll turn that, and then I'll get a top stitch. So without the corners, this is how it's going to look, kind of like what I did in the small, small size before I cut the corners, but this time I'm ready to turn right side out. Before I do that, though, I am going to take a little bit out of the corner. I'm going to do that on the outside and the lining. I just find that it actually helps to make the bag sit a little bit nicer. So I just kind of angle those just a little bit, and I'm going to reach in here and turn this, and I'm going to make sure that I really poke those corners out. If you want to use a turning tool, that's also really helpful. I have long nails, so I'm just kind of using my fingernail to push that. You just want to make sure that you get the sharpest corners that you possibly can. All right, push that, and especially if you have one that looks good, you want the other ones to look good, right? So just going to work that just a little bit. I think my other corner looks nicer. There we go. All right, and now I have to close the lining, and I'll tuck that one in. I'll throw a zipper end on this, and I've got four pouches. So I'm going to close this up, do my top stitching, and then I'll come back, and we'll take a look at all of them together.
So I've got all of my pouches done, and what I think is one of the best parts, the most fun things, is that these all nest inside of each other. So they're super fun as like a little gift set, or if you sell bags and you want to sell a little set of them, how fun would that be? Again, just because these are the sizes that I have kind of designated and worked on from the piece of cork that I had, it does not mean that you have to do them. You can adjust these however you want. If you need this to be taller, or this to be longer, if you want to play around with corners, absolutely you can do that. And now that you have the skills and a place to start, you can make make whatever size you want from any fabric or cork that you have. They are great scrap busters, as you can see. I have different zippers here. I used up some of my zipper ends. I just kind of, you know, went crazy and just used all the things that I had. You can remake whatever size you want, and like I said in the beginning, don't be afraid to adjust things. If you're trying to cut this one out and you're a half-inch short on the width, that's okay. Just make sure your lining is the same size. I hope that you'll play around with the different zipper techniques and start to feel more comfortable putting in zippers, and also just being more comfortable looking at a pattern and saying, I don't really like that zipper technique, but I know some others that I can sub. So I hope you enjoyed this video. If you like tutorials like this, don't forget to give it a thumbs up, click the subscribe button, and hit the notification bell. Thank you so much for watching.