The Ultimate Zipper Pouch Guide
Sewing zipper pouches are a staple skill in your sewing arsenal! However, zippers, especially dealing with the pesky ends, are something that intimidate a lot of people new to sewing.
A lot of zipper pouch tutorials deal with the zipper in complicated ways, with extra bits of fabric sewn to the ends, or other such unnecessary steps. Those methods do look nice, but I have found myself coming back to my original zipper installation every time! It’s fuss free and gives a nice result.
I set out to create a zipper pouch tutorial, but I wanted it to include beginner friendly instructions for the building blocks of zipper pouches so that those who use my tutorial will be able to sew pouches in many shapes and styles.
New to my shop, this zipper pouch guide will teach you to sew zipper pouches that are plain or quilted, flat or with boxed corners, pencil shaped pouches, and pouches of all sizes.
Of course, as always, you can watch a full video walkthrough of the zipper pouch tutorial! In this video, I used a quilt block to make a pencil sized pouch. I love finding ways to scratch the quilting itch when I don’t really have the time or desire to make a full quilt! The video will show you how I did it from start to finish.
Where I buy my fun zippers for zipper pouches
I love to have zippers on hand in lots of fun colors! When I was teaching kids sewing classes, I discovered I could buy very nice zippers in bulk on Amazon. Zipper pouches and bags in general work best with zippers that have larger pulls than you’d find at the sewing store in the regular zipper sections. Zippers you sew into garments have small pulls so they don’t distract or dig in, but if you use those for pouches and bags, they’re too small to grab hold of and open easily.
I like to search for “handbag zippers” for this reason. These have larger pulls and bigger teeth too. Plus, they come in very fun colors and you can get a bulk set of them in an array of colors to have on hand. These YKK zippers are my go-to, but I recently found these super fun zippers and I love them! The contrasting teeth and tape colors, along with the ringed pulls make them just so much fun.
I buy my packs of zippers in 12” or 14” lengths and this seems to be a sweet spot for most projects. Of course they come in longer lengths and they’d be great on jackets or larger bags too, so depending on what you like to make, you may want to order a few sizes. Zippers are the kind of thing it makes sense to have a bunch of on hand so that when you need one, you have some to choose from. Nothing is more annoying than having to stop in the middle of a project just to go to the store for a little supply like a zipper!
My zipper stash also includes zippers I pick up at thrift stores or garage sales. If I see zippers, I always buy them. Many of mine are vintage, with metal teeth and in great colors that are harder to find today. For zipper pouches, the plastic teeth are best, though, so I mostly use the metal ones for other things.
Where to buy the zipper pouch guide
You can learn to make zipper pouches with my easy zipper method by just following the free video tutorial! But if you want more thorough printable instructions with all versions of zipper pouches, you can purchase the pdf printable version from my shop or on Etsy if you prefer.
The printable guide is a more convenient way to make lots of pouches without having to refer back to the video every time, plus it comes with instructions for a variety of pouch styles and ideas for customizing and embellishing the pouches.
Happy Sewing!
Love, Nikki