Tutorial - Zip bag

Long zips and plain zip

Haberdashery section

You need, not the usual zip of a given length that we all know and love, but the zips that are sold by the metre (yard).   I buy mine from a large fabric store which has a wide selection of trimmings and haberdashery.  The zips come in a variety of colours and widths.  The shop also sells suitable sliders to match.  

 You need from 3 to 8 metres of a single length of zip, depending on the size of the bag you are aiming for.  Buy a slider for it.  If you are unsure that you will be able to insert the slider, you can ask the shop assistant to do it for you – but watch it, it will easily slide off again as, unlike an ordinary zip, the ends are not finished.

Slider put on

Slider on two colours

  I made this project very fast as a basic illustration of the principle, and not as the tidiest I’ve ever done.  If you are good at hand-sewing, you might find that the corners are easier and neater than by machine.

Instead of using a single colour I am using two zips which I am “marrying” to show the construction better.  Unzip the whole length of zip except for two or three inches (Five to eight cm).  It will be wise to sew across and finish off the end of the zip here so that it stays tidy, and the slider stays on!

Secured end

Another corner turned

First corner done

Decide how long the base of the bag will be, and at that point turn the one part of the zip on itself, making a very neat corner and sewing the two flat edges together until you come to the end of the zip when you keep sewing around that corner, making beatiful corners again.  

Sew with care

Zipping round corner

Zipping round another corner

Wrong side

 By now you will be sewing the edges on opposite side of the zip (see the colours in the photo).  

 You now keep sewing for almost all the metres you need to.  If you aren’t a naturally accurate seamstress it be worth your while to do a lot of pinning or, even better, some tacking (basting).

 

You can incorporate something decorative during this process, using, for example, some corded braid.  Finish the wrong side off neatly to make it sturdy.

Braid

Braid

Braid

You need to stop and fasten off your work when you are on the one side of the bag, with a reasonable length of zip left to make the handle you chose.

Leave half of the zip to the length of the handle and anchor it on the opposite side of the bag.

 

Stop sewing here

Choose handle length

Inside view

Standard handles

Inside view

Marking last connection

Then you leave another handle’s worth before zipping up the whole lot to decide the final anchor for the last handle.  You can see where I pinned it to

mark the spot.

  

Nearly there

Inside view

Outside view

Loop handle

Diagonal handle

Take great care, after you cut the end to size, not to let the slider slip off.  Immediately tack (baste) the end to keep the slider on, else you will cry salty tears.

Try to figure out how the handle for the red bag is constructed -  a very useful pattern for a pencil bag.  A single diagonal handle on the beige bag.

Variety

Decoration

 If you can make one of these successfully (and don’t take it for granted that your first one will be a prize-winner) you’ll be able to innovate and experiment with different weights of zip, different colours and different sizes.  If you want to mix two colours, it is essential that the zips are identical apart from colour, otherwise they will not zip together, or, if they do, they might curl onto each other, making a very unattractive bag.  Remedy: go back and buy exacty the same materials again and make two single-colour bags.

 

These make nice gifts – especially for children as they can zipped up and put in the washer!  Using a smallish gauge of zip and make a long skinny pencil case, for a project.  Fastening a pretty bead to the slider makes it a little more special.

Go ahead!  Make one!  They are great fun!  Give one, all unzipped, to a man and tell him to keep on zipping up.  He won’t believe it.