If you’re new to my 52 zippers project, you can read the backstory, see all the zipper pouches, and download basic zipper pouch instructions here.

For this week’s zipper pouch, I wanted to play with vinyl. I have a bunch of vinyl that isn’t doing anything but being in the way so I want to use most of it up! I also have a bunch of 6″ zippers that I want to use up because they’re too short to do much of anything. (I ordered the 6″ zippers back before I knew better–now I only buy 14″ and cut to size). Anyway, I searched for a small vinyl pouch tutorial and came across this one by Hungry Hippie Sews. The tutorial worked pretty well but I’ve got a couple of tips for you that would have made things a little easier. I also didn’t add the clip-on thing as I didn’t think I needed the clip for these.

I absolutely LOVE these and plan to make many more. A set of these is very likely going to be part of my kids’ teacher’s gifts this year too! They took less than 15 minutes each which is fantastic!

The best thing about these is that they use NO fabric! Such a timesaver as then the zippers didn’t need to match anything!

I wanted to make one of these for each of my kids, so they each chose a zipper. Then I decided to make things more interesting by swapping out the zipper pull on each of them to a contrasting color. This is pretty easy to do: cut off the bottom of the zipper just above the stop and slide the original pull off. Align both ends of the zipper and finesse them through the top of the new pull. It is fiddly and takes a minute, but it’s not too tricky. It helps to put the zipper down on a surface so you can hold down the two zipper ends while you slide the pull upwards. I had a set of extra zipper pulls from the last time I ordered from Zipit zippers that made swapping easy.

So, the tutorial doesn’t specify a weight of vinyl, and I used 16 gauge vinyl thinking the thicker the better. However, 16 gauge is pretty heavy and this was very awkward to turn right side out at the end. I think it took longer to turn right side out than it did to sew the entire pouch! If I were to make these again I’d try 12 gauge to compare. I do really like the heft of the pouch now that it’s done though.

The tutorial didn’t mention using Wonder clips when sewing the zipper to the vinyl, but those were totally necessary. I also lengthened my stitch length to 3mm. A long stitch length makes fewer holes in the vinyl which makes it less prone to ripping.

The other thing is that when I trimmed my zipper ends, they started to fray loose threads into the pouch, which was not going to do at all. So I’d suggest using some fray-stop liquid, burning the ends, or sewing a zigzag stitch over that bit before turning the pouch.

I automatically backstitched a couple of times overtop of the zipper when sewing the side seams, and I’m glad I did because I’m pretty certain the stitches would have ripped while turning if I hadn’t.

My kids plan to fill these with tiny treasures but they would also make fantastic notions pouches! The next ones I make will be with 12 gauge vinyl and I might try making them a wee bit smaller. 🙂

Zipper pouch specs:

• Outer pieces: one piece of 16 gauge vinyl, cut 4″ x 8″.
• Lining pieces: none
• Zipper tabs: none
• Zipper: 4″ cut

See you back here next week with another zip pouch!