Sweetheart Zip Pouch: Valentine’s Day Sewing Projects

If you like this Sweetheart Zip Pouch Sewing tutorial then you may like this list of 40+ Cute things to sew for Valentine’s Day!

 

Valentine’s Day always seems to sneak up on me a bit.  I don’t know why but it shouldn’t. It’s such a pleasant and happy holiday.  A full day devoted to appreciating those around us that we love.  We get the whole family involved with a “fancy” dinner at home and lots of chocolate for everyone.

This year I’ve had “hearts” on the brain the last few weeks. I’m in the middle of a quilt project that I can’t wait to share with you. I’ve been working on it for a bit now and thought I’d take a break from it to sew up a cute little zip pouch that would be a perfect Valentine for someone special.   This Valentine’s Day sewing project is a quick one and the design is simple, you can easily adapt it if you’d like.

If you’d like to make one you’re going to need:

2: 12″ x 8″ pieces of heavy white fabric.  I used white duck cloth that I washed and dried several times to soften it up.

2: 12″ x 8″ pieces of fabric for the lining

2: 12″ x 8″ pieces of Shape Flex Interfacing

4 pieces of felt in various colors. I used wool felt, you could also use bamboo if you like.

12″ zipper

Heart Punch

Pen Safe to mark on fabric – I use frixion pens- they are not made for fabric, but the ink totally disappears when you hit it with the iron.

 

Begin by picking out your felt. I started with 5 colors of felt then went to 4. I used 2 reds and 2 pinks and arranged them from dark to light on the zip pouch.

Next you need a heart shape to use as a template. You can draw a heart or find one around the house to trace. I simply used a punch that I had. I punched out the heart from a piece of cardstock, then used that as a stencil to trace and cut out my hearts.

Trace and cut out 12 hearts.

Next make a grid on one of your 12″ x 8″ white pieces of fabric. The size of your grid will depend on the size of your hearts. Aim for the hearts to be 1 1/2″ from the top and bottom of the piece of fabric.

Next pin your hearts onto the grid. I pinned mine dark to light. Make sure they are all lined up properly.

Using a sewing machine with white thread stitch down the center of the hearts along the line that you drew. Use a stitch length of 3.5 or 4.

Cut a 1″ x 1″ square out of the bottom two corners of this piece. Do the same thing on the other 12″ x 8″ white piece.

Press the shape flex onto the lining fabric pieces. Cut a 1 ” x 1″ square out of the bottom two corners of those pieces also.

Now assemble the pouch.

Pin the right side of the pouch outside front piece (the one with the hearts) to the right side of the zipper. Pin one of the lining pieces to the wrong side of the zipper. Using a zipper foot, stitch.

Repeat for the other side of the zipper.

Press the fabric away from the zipper and top stitch along both sides of the zipper. Cut off the extra zipper (do this ONLY if you bought a polyester zipper, don’t do this for a metal zipper).

Your piece will look like this.

Next, un zip the zipper 3/4 of the way. NOT all the way since you cut off the zip stop. 

Pin the two zip pouch outside pieces right sides together and the two lining pieces right sides together. Fold the seam allowance of the zipper towards the lining pieces.

Stitch with 1/2″ seam allowance, skipping the corners. Leave a 2″ opening in the center of the lining pieces so that you can turn the pouch right side out.

Next, pinch the corners (where the squares are cut out) so that the raw edges are even and the seams are lined up on top of each other. Stitch in place with 1/2″ seam allowance. Repeat for all 4 corners.

Turn zip pouch right side out.  Stitch (by hand or machine it’s up to you) the opening in the lining closed.

Give it a final press taking care not to damage the wool felt and you’re done!!