Throughout the world of crafty blogs, everyone seems to be talking about Celebrate the Boy Month. Thank you to Dana and Rae for this wonderful concept. Boys always seem to come off second best when it comes to crafty ideas and tutorials. It is great to see these two wonderful blogs provide us with so many great ideas and encourage us all to pull up our socks when it comes to sewing for our boys.
So this post is for our two beautiful boys:

Today, I thought we would have a look at a zippered purse with a difference. I know there are dozens of tutorials for zippered purses out there and we all have our favourite, so I am going to concentrate on two parts of the purse:

• some internal pockets
  
• putting in the zipper
  

So grab yourself some fabric scraps and a long zipper. This is what we will be making:

What you will need:

1. 2 pieces of outer fabric 13cm x 32cm and one for the strap 5cm x 25cm
2. lining fabric - one piece 13cm x 32cm and one piece 29cm x 32cm
3. A scrap of appropriate fabric for appliqueing, some embroidery thread and a small piece of fusible webbing. You could always draw up your own template for applique if you 're not as lucky as I was to have the perfect orange car in my stash!
4. A long zip - 45cm. You can either try a matching colour or a contrasting one can be fun.

First of all - embellish away on one piece of your outer fabric!
I used back stitch for Will's name and appliqued a cute little car on to mine using fusible webbing and running stitch.

If you would like a handle on your pencil case now's the time to make it.
Fold the handle piece in half length ways and iron to make a centre crease. Then, iron both long sides in to meet this crease. Fold in the center again. You will have made a handle of four layers of fabric with the raw edges sandwiched in the middle.

Top stitch along both edges and set your handle aside for now.

Let's move on to the inner pockets.
This is a really simple design but works  well. You have to like that!
Take the larger piece of lining (29cm x 32cm). The pockets are created by folding and sewing this piece of fabric. Lay the fabric out in front of you so it lies length ways.  Fold the piece of fabric up by 16cm then back on itself by 8cm so the cut edge lines up again with the bottom fold. It sounds a bit like origami doesn't it?  You'll know you have got it right if this piece is now the same size as the other lining piece you have cut.
You now need to create individual pockets by sewing this flap down. Mark out your pockets with a water soluble marker. There are five in all. The ones on either end are 6cm wide and the inner 3 are 5cm.You can get an idea of what I mean by looking at this picture.  In the picture I have already sewn them.

It's best to sew the pockets from the bottom to the top of the flap. Don't forget to lock off your rows of stitching with a couple of stitches in reverse or the stitching will unravel when little fingers try to fit their MatchBox cars in there.

Once you have sewn the pockets in you can use this piece of fabric like a regular lining piece for your zippered purse.

So how do I make a zippered purse?
I make zipper sandwiches.
When you use an extra long zipper, make the sandwich in the middle of the zipper. You will have a long overhang of zipper on either end, but this is good. It means when you sew the zipper in you won't have to deal with manoeuvring the sewing machine foot around the zipper pull - so much easier and you don't even need your zipper foot! It was my brilliant little sister, Caroline, who came up with this idea and it has certainly made zippered purses so much faster to make.
I take my embellished outer fabric and lay it right side up. I put the zipper on top of it facing down with the zipper pull to the left. I then place the lining piece without the pockets on it  wrong side up on top of the zip. Line up the zipper edge with the raw edges of the outer and lining and pin liberally. It should look like this.

Now, sew your sandwich together. I used a 1cm seam allowance - but work out what's best for you. You will get the best finish by stitching as close to the zipper teeth as possible.
And look that zipper pull is right out of the way!

Flap those pieces back and you should have something that looks like this:

You can now attach your other outer and lining to the opposite side of the zip.
So.....
Outer right side up, zipper right side down with the pull to the right, lining piece with pockets right side down.
Pin and sew your sandwich!
Now you should have a zipper with two pieces of fabric attached to either side of it.
Open your zipper so the pull is in the middle of your purse. Trust me, you will regret it if you forget this step.
Flip the fabric around so that you have both pieces of outer fabric right sides together on one side of the zipper and both sides of lining fabric on the other side of the zipper. Sandwich the handle between your two outer layers and pin in place. Pin all the way around the edges making sure you line up the zipper carefully on either end. Try and push the zipper teeth in the direction of the lining. Sew all the way around this rectangle with a 1cm seam allowance, leaving a space so you can turn it through. You will be sewing over the zip. This is not a problem, just take it slowly. (Don't try this with a metal zipper - your sewing machine won't like it.)

It should now look like this:

Now go on, live on the edge!!! Trim your corners, seam allowances and zip ends. I always get a slight thrill when I cut those zipper ends off. (This probably reflects poorly on my life in general - but there you go!)
Turn the purse right side out, use a chopstick to push out the corners so they are nice and square. Hand slip the hole in the lining and then tuck it back in to the outer of the purse.
There you are done!
A handled, pocketed pencil case, with MatchBox car pockets for your boy!

PS. I know we are Celebrating the Boy but I just wanted to let you know - I made a make up purse for myself using the pockets in the lining technique on both sides of the lining. I made the pockets narrower so they would fit my lipsticks. It worked well and my makeup is now very organised!!!