How to Sew a Slim Pencil Case (zipper pouch)

Svetlana Sotek here and today I'm excited to show you how to make these super fun, practical, fully lined slim pencil cases. So here are the pouches we'll be working on and the pouch will finish three inches tall by seven and a half inches wide and as you can see I added decorative ribbon tabs to my pouches. You don't have to do that if you don't want to. Also I added zipper pulls. That's again an optional thing. We will be using quilting cotton for both exterior and the lining of our pouch and as you can see I used metal zippers for my pouches but you can definitely use an island zipper if that's what you prefer. And as I mentioned before the pouches are fully lined. As you can see they fit pens and pencils perfectly. I went ahead and adhered fusible fleece to the wrong sides of both of my exterior panels and now we are ready to get sewing. So first of all what I'm going to do here is my optional ribbon that I'm going to fold in half, add it to the right edge of one of the panels about three quarters inch down from the top edge and just stitch it in place. And I backstitched just to make sure that it stays nice and secure. Now I'll set my panels aside for a little bit because I need to get my zipper ready. So what I'm going to do is fold the zipper tape at 45 degree angle just like that, fold it down towards wrong side like this and then I'm going to stitch right here a few back and forth stitches just to secure it in place. See and this is what it looks like now. So it has the tape secured right here and this is what I'm going to do on all four ends of the zipper tape. So again I'm folding it at 45 degree angle, folding it towards wrong side of the zipper and attaching. And the same goes for the end part. And the last one right here. You could definitely do this step by hand if you wanted to. I just prefer it by machine. It's quicker, super fast, all done. But you can definitely do it by machine. Just make sure you only stitch within the seam allowance. So don't stitch anywhere close to the zipper so it's not visible once you add it to your pouch. Right, so now it's time to start the pouch assembly. So here is my prepared zipper, one of my exterior panels. I'm using the one with the ribbon and I'm going to place my zipper right side down. So right side of the exterior panel and right side of the zipper are together and I will center my zipper along the top edge. So centering meaning you'll have the same amount of fabric exposed on both sides and you should have about maybe quarter inch to three quarters of an inch on each side. I'm using my sewing clips to hold zipper in place. You could definitely use pins for this. I'll open my zipper because I never want to stitch around the zipper pull, always get it out of my way. And I'm going to baste zipper in place. I'm using one eighth inch seam allowance. You could definitely use a longer basting stitch. I find that just using regular stitch works just fine for me. So I just basted the zipper in place and now I'm going to add the lining and again I will place lining right side down. Now many people do this step all at once. They don't do the basting of the zipper. I find it I just get nicer, neater seams when I baste it. So that's what I do. So again I'm just going to clip it up here. So as you can see here is the zipper right side down and lining and exterior are right sides together. And I'm going to stitch along the top edge using a scant quarter inch seam allowance so slightly less than quarter inch. And I always find out it works best for me when I turn the panel lining side down so the kind of flimsier thinner panel down and stitch like that. Now as you can see I'm not using a zipper foot on my sewing machine because I'm using my standard juki foot which is pretty thin as it is. So I find there's no need for me to use zipper foot. But definitely if you have a different sewing machine or you feel comfortable with your zipper foot just go ahead and switch it now. You need to go and stitch slightly less than quarter inch seam allowance. And I stopped with the needle down. Gonna lift my presser foot and I will open my zipper or mostly I'm just moving the zipper pull out of the way because I never want to sew around it as that would give me a kind of wobble there. And just finish stitching. There we go. Now what I'm going to do is just gently finger press exterior panel away from the zipper. As you can see I'm pressing only exterior away. Lining stays this way. And I'm going to top stitch along the exterior panel using one eighth inch seam allowance. Like that. So top stitching goes through the exterior and the zipper not the lining. Moving the zipper pull out of the way. And again. And always remember just keep the needle down so it doesn't move on you. Lift up presser foot and move the zipper pull. And this is what my panel looks like at this point. Now the reason I didn't top stitch along the lining is that this way I will end up with a really neat beautiful corners once I finish the pouch. If I were to stitch over the lining I my corners would kind of get folded in on themselves and I don't like that. So after I attach a second panel I'll go ahead and just press it really well using hot iron and steam to keep it out of the way. Right. So we have one exterior and one lining added to our pouch. It's time to add second exterior panel. So place it right side up on your sewing machine flat surface and now place the panel that you're working on right side down. See so exterior panels are right sides together. Again you need to center your zipper and this time you're paying attention to make sure everything lines up on the side edges. And I'm going to clip my zipper in place and use one eighth inch seam allowance to stitch it. Again needle down presser foot up and move the zipper pull out of your way. Okay. And the same way as I did the first lining I'm just going to do it now as well. Place it right sides together. Line it up. Clip together. And again I'm going to flip it and sew along the fusible fleece side. Here we go. Slightly less than quarter inch seam allowance. All right. And once again finger press exterior away from zipper and top stitch using one eighth inch seam allowance. I'll press this lining away from zipper as well. This is what my panel looks like at this point. So now you could go to your iron and just press lining really well so it stays nice and flat. I think I will do that step at the end. And here's what it looks like on the exterior side. So we are really close to being finished. So what we need to do now is open your zipper about three quarters of the way. Now make sure you do that step. Do not forget to open your zipper because it's a little bit tricky if you don't. And now line up exterior panels right sides together and linings right sides together. Now as you can see my zipper naturally falls towards lining. So it sort of folds in onto the lining and that's what I want. I'm going to line up where my exterior and lining meet and clip it in place. And I will do the same on the other side. Again my zipper falls towards lining. And line it neatly. Put a clip in and now I'll go and clip all the way around the pouch. All right. I used my sewing clips to hold both lining and exterior panels together. They're lined up. And what I'm going to do is start stitching right here about two inches from the edge of the lining. Stitch all the way here. Then stitch along this edge. The bottom edge. Top edge. And right here. And again finish somewhere where my clip is. I'm going to leave about a three inch opening in my lining. Because I want to make sure I leave a little hole for turning the pouch right side out. So I will take it right here. And I will backstitch at the beginning and at end. And I'm using quarter inch seam allowance. Now as you are as you can see here is the end of my zipper. I'm going to try to sew as close to the zipper as possible. But I definitely do not want to hit the And once again I'm coming close to the zipper. I can see where my zipper is. So even if you needed to adjust your seam allowance to make it slightly larger or smaller you can definitely do that. Just make sure you do not hit your zipper. My last seam. I will finish right here. And backstitch. So once again we started stitching right here. Going all the way around the pouch. Finishing here. Backstitching at the beginning and end. Now I'm going to clip the corners. Make sure there is less bulk when I turn the pouch right side out. And at this point you could definitely go ahead and press all your seams open. I sometimes do that but for the video to make it quicker I just left it like that and I will do pressing at the end. So now I'm reaching inside the hole in the lining and pushing my whole pouch right side up. This is definitely the fun part. That's where it all comes together. Right. So I'll push out the lining. Open your zipper all the way. And get your fingers inside the exterior of the pouch and just kind of push the corners out. Don't be kind of too harsh with it. You don't want to make it too pointy. Just kind of help it help shape it. And as you can see I also push the corner of my zipper out. You see how nice and neat it is here? This is what we want and this is what we get when we don't stitch the lining in with the exterior. So here's one side and I want to do the other side as well. Now this zipper is loose here and again push the corner out and I'm also going and just smoothing the seam from the inside. Also you can roll it between your fingers a little bit make it nice and crisp. There we go. So that's my exterior. Now I just have really one last step to do and that's line up. Just kind of push these bottom seams inside. They will naturally want to fall inside and close the opening like that. So I'm just going to put a clip on to hold it in place and I will stitch the opening closed. I'm going to use 1-8 inch seam allowance. You could again definitely do this step using just hand stitching it. I prefer using my sewing machine. And backstitch at the beginning and end. All right now I will just gently push the lining inside my pouch. Zip it up. Look how beautiful it is. So fun. In the last step which is an optional step of course is I'm going to add a leather lace to my zipper. I'll make a nice tight knot right here. And there we go. Slim pencil case is all finished and I hope you will give this tutorial a try and enjoy making your own slim pencil cases. And um please give a thumbs up to the video if you liked it and I hope you'll subscribe to my channel. Bye!