Christine Sews

Installing a zipper in a lined bag  can make the bag more secure, and give a casual look.  Follow these steps, after cutting out the fabric.

1. Lay the lining fabric right side up.
2. Stack the zipper on top of the lining fabric, right side up.  Line up the edges.
3. Add the outer fabric to the stack wrong side up, lined up with the zipper.  Pin or use water soluble double sided tape to secure the layers.  (I like the tape.)



4. Stitch through all layers.  Instead of stitching as close as possible to the zipper, as with an on-seam zipper installation, leave a bit of room.
5. Turn right sides out and press.



6. Topstitch.  Important:  topstitching will prevent the zipper from getting stuck in the lining fabric.
7. Place the lining right sides together, and outer fabric right sides together.  Pull the zipper open halfway.  Angle the tines toward the lining.
8. Stitch around four sides, leaving a five inch gap in the lining.
9. Continue as you would for the Girls Bag assembly.

I mimicked the floral design of the lining to decorate this denim girls bag.  I just sketched it onto the bag with tailors chalk, then went over it with puffy paint.

I also measured my child from hip, over the opposite shoulder, and back to hip, to get a cross-body measurement, and added four inches.  Because four year old fashionistas make requests like, “Mom, this bag is cute, but I really need a zippered cross-body bag.  Please!”

I’m very pleased with myself for recycling the denim and zipper from an old pair of jeans.  I made two of them, one for my fashionista who got the prototype pictured here, and one for her friends birthday gift.  Working with denim was a new challenge for me.

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