Emma Lea Creative | Valentine’s Day Project
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Valentine’s Day Project

Need a quick project to make this weekend? You might go to Pinterest and look around, perhaps search “tutorial” and hope to find some good quick instructions? I like to do that! But I hate it when the “tutorial” is just a picture…or in another language…or a bunch of ads and not what you clicked at all! Ever happened to you?

So here’s a tutorial for a pin I’ve been thinking of making for a while, but really had to figure out how to do myself. Yeah, you could probably figure it out with just the photos, but you didn’t really want that much work, did you?! Just follow me…

First I drew up the pattern.
Now you can skip that step by downloading this pdf. HEART ZIP POUCH PATTERN.pdf

You’ll see the original Pinterest image on the pdf for reference. I didn’t make that, ok? But its a nice reference if you want to remember the steps.

Then gather up scraps of two kinds of fabric, some thin batting (or lightweight fusible fleece is good), a 6″ or longer zipper and your sewing supplies.

  1. Print the pdf pattern on cardstock if you have it, cut out and trace it onto the back side of your lining.
  2. Hold the outside fabric together with the lining, right sides facing and cut out the three pieces.
  3. Also cut out the three shapes in your lightweight batting. Cut this out a scant 1/4″ smaller than the template.
  4. Keep the front pieces together with the matching batting pieces. This is where fusible comes in handy!
  5. Here’s what all your pieces look like:
  6. Line up the two fronts like this:
  7. Pull your zipper all the way closed and lay it on top of the largest front piece’s straight edge. Make sure the front of your zipper is down on the front of the fabric and the right edge aligned with the straight edge of the heart. Now set your lining piece down on the zipper with the right side down and the straight edge aligned with the zipper edge too.
  8. If you have a zipper foot on your sewing machine, put that on now. Sew a 1/4″ seam.
  9. Open out those two sides and it should look like this, it’s a little weird, but it works!
  10. Do the same set of steps to the smaller sides of the heart. 
  11. Press those pieces outward and topstitch close to the zipper to make it nice and neat. The pieces aren’t aligned all perfectly on my pouch, but it will work out fine in the end.
  12. Now I made several of these so the fabrics are going to change in the photos, but here we are, close to the assembly stage. Take your little 2″ square and fold it in half, press, and fold the edges in to the middle. Sew close to both folded edges to make your little keychain tab. Sorry no photo of that, but if you’ve ever made a strap for anything, you’ll know what I mean. OPEN THE ZIPPER and keep the pull somewhere in the middle now. Fold the little tab in half and put the raw edges up against the open ends of your zipper. Pull them right next to each other and baste that tab on. Go slow over the zipper!
  13. Now take your full heart, main fabric and lay it face down on your piece. Stack the lining face up on top of that. See the layering?
  14. It’s actually better to sew while looking at the zipper side, so flip it over and pin that stack together really well. Make sure your zipper pull is somewhere in the middle of the heart at this stage! Sew around it the heart with a 1/4″ seam. Go slow over the zipper again, maybe backstitch a couple times over it to give it strength. If things aren’t perfectly aligning, make sure you get all the smallest parts caught in the seam.
  15. Trim the seam allowances really well. Get extra batting out from between AND clip the curves close to but not over the seam line.
  16. Turn inside out through the zipper hole and use a tool such as a bone folder or dull pencil to push the edges out as smooth as you can.Now give it a little press (use a pressing cloth to protect the zipper). Topstitch all the way around, starting and stopping at each zipper edge (don’t go over them the zipper this time.)
  17. It’s done! Put a keychain ring in it or some kind of fancy pull or lobster clasp if you have one. Nice, huh?!

Ok, so that was 18 steps, but it’s really not too hard once you have it figured out! You could get one or two done before Valentine’s Day! I’m going to go make some more!

If you want another, easier Valentine’s Day project, how about some little heart sachets?

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