How to Make a Zipper Wristlet Or Makeup Cosmetic Bag Pouch

(Intro music.) Hey, it's Vanessa from CraftyGemini.com and I post weekly crafting and cooking videos here on YouTube. I recently found out about the MyCraft Channel that's coming this fall and I thought I'd submit this video tutorial for the Fresh Faces Talent Search competition. We're working on a sewing and quilting tutorial this week that also incorporates a technique that a lot of you beginners have been asking me about, and that's how to sew a zipper. This is a great project for a beginner to first learn how to put in a zipper. This is also completely customizable, so you can leave off the little wristlet part and turn it into a cosmetic bag, you can make a small one and make a coin purse. So it's really versatile and I hope you guys enjoy it. Now let's start with the supplies we'll need and jump right into the project. (Music. 2 outer fabric pieces, measuring 9" by 6.5". 2 lining fabric pieces measuring 9" by 6.5". 2 batting pieces measuring 9" by 6.5". 1 wristband fabric piece measuring 2" by 10". 1 8" zipper. Coordinating thread of your choice. Rotary cutter, mat and rulers. Fabric glue stick, I use Lapel Stick. Pins and chalk or fabric marker. And a sewing machine!) The first thing we're going to do is match up one of our fabric pieces that we want to be on the outside of our pouch, okay. Whatever you want on the outside, those are the pieces you want to grab. One up with one piece of batting and do the same thing for the other. And I like to take my Lapel Stick at this time and put some just around the edges of the fabric piece, and it'll keep it from moving so we can quilt it. I like to smooth it out from the center out so everything lays flat. Repeat this on our other piece here. (Music. Now you quilt. Remember to sew with batting side down. Diagonal lines, or cross hatching, or whatever you want! Quilt both outer pieces and set aside.) Now we're ready to make our wristlet strap. Lay it in front of you with the ugly side of the fabric facing up. You're going to fold it in half lengthwise and press that in place. Then you open it back up, and you're going to fold each of the sides, the long sides towards that center fold. Then refold it again down that initial fold you made the first time you folded it in half, and you're going to press that in place. And in order to keep it shut, you're going to take a basic straight stitch and just stitch right along that open edge. (Now the fun begins!) The first thing you want to do is take one of your lining pieces and put it with the pretty side of the fabric facing up. Then take your zipper, put it with the zipper pull side facing up as well on that right-side edge of your lining fabric. Take one of your outside pieces, the one that's been quilted, and lay it with the pretty side of the fabric facing down. You can put some pins in here but I like to use the Lapel Stick. So I'll just put a little bit on the edge here of the lining fabric, and then I'll lay my zipper on top, and then I'll do the same thing on the fabric side of this top piece and do the same thing right there. Now you want to go to your sewing machine and obviously you want to keep in mind where the zipper pull on the teeth are of the zipper. And you want to come in only about a quarter of an inch if you only have a regular foot on your machine. If you have a zipper foot, go ahead and use that so you can get nice and close to the teeth without actually sewing over them. And make sure that my needle is lining up somewhere in the middle of this zipper tape, stitch all the way down and then backstitch at the end as well. (Music.) Now we're going to repeat this to the next side, and to do that you want to take your lining piece, pretty side facing up. Then you want to take your quilted and sewn piece already with the zipper tape -- again the zipper pull is facing up, but this time it's down here at the bottom. And then you're going to take your quilted piece and, again, with the pretty side facing down, line it up on that right-side edge. That's going to be where you're going to be sewing, and again I'll take my Lapel Stick and do the same thing I did to the first side. (Music.) You can see the zipper looks nice and neat there. What you want to do now is press this open here and you're going to stitch through all these layers here and that's to keep this fabric from getting caught in the zipper teeth when you're opening and closing it. Now we want to open up our zipper, almost all the way open. Then you're going to take both of the outer pieces, separate from the lining, and put them together. This, and then your lining pieces are going to be together here. And as you're lining up these raw edges and getting ready to pin them in place, what you want to do is make sure that the teeth, the zipper teeth in here are going towards the side of the lining. So as long as I keep that there, I'll be okay. Then you want to line up your edges and start pinning these in place. And continue to do this on the side of the quilted pieces as well. Now we take something to mark with and on the lining side here, make a mark about two to three inches in length. And reminding ourselves not to sew here because we need to leave a hole to flip all this inside out. Now we need to put in our little wrist strap. What I like to do is to feel around here and feel where my zipper pull is. I can tell that it's here. Meaning that when it's open it's all the way down here, and when's it's closed it's all the way up here. Where it's closed, that's where you want to insert your wrist so that when you have your pouch and it's fully closed, you're holding it on the side where the zipper pull is. So I'm going to remove this little pin here and you're going to slip this in with the folded side in towards the center. Just open it up in here, till you get to the point where you have the raw edges on the raw edge here. You can also leave a little bit of it out, just so you make sure that you catch all those layers. And I'm going to take that pin again and put it right back there. And I like to do it just about an inch and a half from the top. Now that everything is in place, we're going to start on one end of my pink line here, backstitch to secure those stitches, come down to the corner, pivot across and go all the way around, till you come back here to the top of the pink line and you're going to backstitch to secure those stitches there as well. (Music. After sewing we trim. Flip it inside out through lining opening. Fold opening edges in and sew it shut. Tuck your lining inside and you're done!) So our quilted wristlet pouch is complete. And I hope you all enjoyed my tutorial and will consider giving this project a try. If you do, be sure to upload pictures to our FaceBook page, you know we always love to see what you make from the Crafty Gemini tutorials. (Ending music.)