Quick Zip Makeup Bag
1. Prewash all your fabrics in warm water on a gentle cycle with laundry detergent, rinse with cold water, and dry on warm until dry. High heat and over drying your fabrics will cause wrinkles to form that will be difficult to remove.2.Carefully press your fabric flat.Use steam if necessary.With right sides of fabric together, line up the selvages of your fabric and smooth toward the fold...
Quick Zip Makeup
Bag
12 Hours
What will you learn?
How to:
Select coordinating printed fabrics
Prewash fabrics before using them
Strip quilt (stitch and flip quilting)
Put in an exposed zipper
What will you need?
A sewing machine and basic sewing tools
Quilting weight cotton fabric: 2 fabrics that look nice together, ¼ yd. of each will make
several bags, you can also use fat quarter cuts of fabric (fat quarters are 18” by about
22”)
11”x14” piece of fusible fleece, Pellon™ Fleece, or cotton batting (these products will
take the heat of an iron, most polyester batting will not)
11”x14” piece of cotton muslin fabric (this will be the lining, you may use cotton quilting
fabric if you wish)
14 inch polyester dress zipper to go with your fabric
6 inches of 1/4” ribbon to go with your fabric
Thread to go with your fabric
Seam Allowances: ¼ inch or use the right edge of your presser foot as a seam guide
(a standard presser foot on most sewing machines makes a 3/8 inch seam allowance)
Directions to make this project:
1. Prewash all your fabrics in warm water on a gentle cycle with laundry detergent,
rinse with cold water, and dry on warm until dry. High heat and overdrying your fabrics
will cause wrinkles to form that will be difficult to remove.
Fun with Fabric 1
2. Carefully press your fabric flat. Use steam if necessary. With right sides of fabric
together, line up the selvages of your fabric and smooth toward the fold. If there are
wrinkles, keep the selvage edges together but shift your fabric sideways until there are
no wrinkles. If you are using fat quarter cuts of fabric, just fold the fabric in half so you
have a rectangle 9” by about 22”.
3. Square up one end of your fabric so you can cut straight strips. From your favorite
print; cut 3 strips 2 ¼ inches wide by 14 inches long. From the other fabric; cut 4 strips,
1 3/4” wide by 14 inches long. (If your machine has a ¼” presser foot, you may cut
your strips 2” and 1 ½” wide to make them look like the makeup bags in the picture.)
4. Fusebaste the lining fabric to the piece of fusible fleece following the
manufacturer’s instructions. Make sure you fuse to the side of the fleece that has glue
on it. If you are using Pellon™ Fleece or cotton batting, use scraps of fusible web to
baste your fabric to your fleece or cotton batting. Sometimes the polyester fleece or
cotton batting has a type of glue on the surface that will hold the backing fabric without
using the fusible web. You may also fusebaste with a spray basting glue like Quilt
Baste. If you have a printed fabric for lining, fusebaste the wrong side of the fabric to
the fleece or cotton batting.
5. Place one of the wider strips right side up on the center of short side of the fleece
side of your fleece and lining fabric unit. Use a couple of pins on the left side of the
strip to keep it straight and hold it in place while you position the next strip of fabric.
Take a narrower strip and place it wrong side up with one cut edge aligned with the
right edge of the wider strip. Stitch down the aligned edges, using the edge of your
presser foot as a guide.
Center first strip. Position next strip on top. Stitch strips.
6. Flip the narrower strip to the side so you can see the right side of both fabrics and
press it carefully to the side. Now take a wider strip and place it right side down so it is
aligned with the cut edge of the last strip you stitched down, flipped, and pressed.
Repeat the stitching, flipping, and pressing with a wide strip. Then, repeat again with a
narrower strip.
Fun with Fabric 2
Flip and press. Add next strip and stitch.
Flip and press again. Add last strip.
7. Rotate the fleece/backing fabric so you can repeat the flipping and stitching
process with your remaining strips. You should have three wide strips and four narrow
strips stitched down on your fleece and lining fabric unit.
8. Trim the strips even with the fleece and backing then trim the fleece and backing
even with the last strip of fabric on each long side. Next, square up each short side so
you have a rectangle about 9 ½” x 12 ½”. It is important that the short ends are the
same width and that the long sides are trimmed to equal lengths.
Fun with Fabric 3
9. Shape each short end with the curved pattern piece provided. Use the center fold
line to match to the center of each short side.
10. Serge or zigzag around all edges. The zigzag stitching should be right on the edge
to hold the layers together and prevent raveling. Use a zigzag stitch with a stitch width
of 3.5 and a length of 3.0.
11. Apply the zipper to the curved ends of your strippieced rectangle using the
exposed method. Center the zipper face down along the curve, aligning the edge of
the curve with the edge of the zipper tape. Pin. Find where the zipper tape will start
and end on the curve. Mark both sides of the zipper teeth as a reference at both the
starting and ending point.
Fun with Fabric 4
Pin and mark where the zipper tape matches the curve at the beginning and end.
12. Put a zipper foot on your sewing machine and stitch with the needle making a
seam line a scant 1/4” from the zipper teeth or the edge of the zipper tape, whatever is
easiest to do with the type of zipper foot you have for your machine. If it is easier to
follow the zipper teeth, you may want to open the zipper for this step. If you don’t have
a zipper foot, you can do this step with the multipurpose foot or an open toe foot
appliqué/decorative stitching foot. Backstitch at the beginning and end of this seam.
13. Close the zipper. Center and pin the other side of the zipper tape to the other
curved edge of your stripped pieced rectangle using the marks you made in step 11. It
is important to have the zipper tape start and end at the same points on both sides.
Repeat step 12 for the second side of the zipper.
14. Zigzag the edge of the zipper tape to the curved edge of the stripped pieced
rectangle on each side of the zipper. This will keep the zipper from catching the zipper
tape or quilted fabric.
Fun with Fabric 5
15. To make the sides of the bag, open (or close) the zipper only half way. This is a
very important step.
16. Fold the bag in half, right sides together and the zipper inside. Match the top
edges of the quilted fabric (and the sides). Pin. You will want to start stitching where
you matched the top edges (NOT at the fold that is the bottom of the bag). Stitch each
side, using the edge of the presser foot as a guide. Back stitch at the beginning and
end of the seams.
Fun with Fabric 6
17. Check to make sure you have the zipper pull between the side seams. If so, you
can trim off the ends of the zipper that extend beyond the side seams at an angle. It is
best to use an old pair of sharp scissors that you would use for cutting paper or kitchen
utility shears. Cutting through the zipper teeth will dull a good pair of fabric shears.
18. Square the bottom of your bag by stitching across the triangle formed by matching
the side seam to the bottom crease. Mark the bottom crease with a pencil, chalk, soap
scrap, or fabric marking pen. Insert a pin straight down through the mark and the seam
line to temporarily hold the position of the corner while you insert another pin that will
secure the corner when you begin stitching.
19. The base of this triangle should be about 2”. If you stitch from the side where you
can see the seam line where you stitched the last strip, you can follow it for a guide.
Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end of your seams so your seams don’t
fall apart.
Fun with Fabric 7
20. Turn your bag right side out. Check your corners to see if they are square and
straight.
21. Insert ribbon in zipper pull and secure with slip knot.
Image: http://www.humc.com/humc_ency/outdoor_health/images/Knots_1Slip.jpg
Trim and seal ends of ribbon with seam sealant or clear finger nail polish. You could
also thread some small beads on the ribbon and knot the ends.
22. Enjoy your makeup bag. If you are making bags as gifts, you may want to stuff
them with clean plastic grocery sacks so they will hold their shape. Try making a larger
bag using prequilted fabric or try squiggle and waves quilting to make your own pre
Fun with Fabric 8
quilted fabric. You can also try using 4 different print fabrics. Cut your strips 1 ¾” wide
(1 ½” if you have a ¼” presser foot). You can use the technique for making square
corners for other styles of bag. Maybe you would like to design a denim grocery sack.
Notes:
Prewashing your fabric will take out chemicals left from manufacturing, remove excess dyes, and shrink the fabric.
Fun with Fabric 9
Use this pattern as a guide for
cutting the curved edges of the
makeup bag
Note: A glass shop can cut an
acrylic template using this pattern.
You can then use the template with
a rotary cutter and mat.
Makeup Bag
Center Fold
Fun with Fabric 10
