Tutorial For 2 Sided Zippered Purse Or Wallet

This tutorial is for a neat purse that has 2 zippered sections, a separate section for bank notes and pockets for credit cards.  It closes with a snap stud tab, but you could use a metal press stud or Velcro tape instead.   It is easy to make and even the zipper part is very straight forward. 

What you need:  
 Fat quarter quilting cotton for main fabric
Fat quarter quilting cotton for lining fabric
Small piece of quilters fleece (eg. Thermolam sew in fleece)
Small piece of iron-on Vilene firm weight. 

Body: 8.5ins(21.5cms) long and 6.7ins (17cms) wide
Cut 2 in main fabric, 2 in lining fabric, cut 1 in Thermolam, cut 2 in Vilene 

Tab: 3.6ins (9cms) wide and 2.8ins (7cm) long
Cut 1 in main fabric, cut 1 in Vilene.

 Inside Pockets:  6.7ins(17cms) wide and 13ins (33cms) long
Cut 1 in main fabric, cut 1 in Vilene 

Sides: 1.4ins (3.5cms) wide by 10ins (25cms)
Cut 2 in lining fabric 

Press-type studs (eg KAMs) or sew on press-stud or piece of Velcro. 2 x 8ins (20cms) zips  

Notes: 0.4in or 1cm seam allowance throughout.  The zips should hang over the edges of the fabric, they will be trimmed after they’ve been sewn in.  Pattern pieces are given in Metric (centimetres) and Imperial (inches).  It’s best to choose either metric or imperial and stick with that throughout. (If you print this pattern off and highlight or circle your measurements you won’t get confused.) 

What you do:   
Cut your fabric.  Cut your Vilene and Thermolam.  Iron the Vilene onto the wrong side of one the main body pieces, one of the lining body pieces, and the tab.  Fold the inside pocket piece in half so it measures 6.7ins by 6.5ins (17cm x 16.5cm). Iron on the fold and apply Vilene to half the wrong side up to the fold.   Spray the wrong side of the pocket piece with temporary adhesive (like 505) and place the Thermolam directly on top of the Vilene.

 Fold the pocket piece in half longways right sides together.  Stitch across the raw
ends.

Turn to the right side and press.  Place on top of the lining body that has the Vilene on it.  Place it centrally on the panel, there should be a margin of the lining body showing at the top and bottom.  Stitch through the middle of the pocket and down the centre of the top half. (see picture below) 

Cut another piece of Vilene approximately 1.6ins (4cm) square.  Iron it over the first Vilene in the bottom right hand corner.  

Fold in half longways with right sides together.  Stitch down one side and across the bottom.  Turn out to the right side and press. 

(At this point I am giving the instructions for attaching a plastic push stud.  If you don’t wish to use this then add your press-stud/Velcro at this stage.)  Find the centre of the tab and measure 0.5ins (1.5cms) from the end.  Poke a hole at this point with an awl (or other pointy tool). 

 

Push the push stud front through the hole and put the stud back on the spindle.  Place in the setting tool and squeeze.  

Place the tab onto the centre top of the main body right sides together.   Stitch very close to the edge. 

 

Place the 2 remaining body pieces, right sides together, onto the front and inside/pocket pieces.  Stitch across the top and bottom of both pieces.  

Turn to the right sides and press.  

Lay one side of the zip under the top front, the tab should lie over the zip.  Place it so that the zip pull and zip stop extend past the sides of the fabric and the zip teeth are central.  Stitch along the zip side not too close to the teeth. 

Match up the top of the inside piece and sew as before.  Lay the other zip at the bottom of the top front and stich into place and then match up the inside piece and sew into place. 

Once the zips have been completed, press the purse flat.  Stitch through all layers on top of the centre line of stitching you made before.   

Fold the purse over so that the centre sewn line is on the bottom, the two zips are at the top and the pocket piece is inside.  Fold the tab over and mark where the back of snap (press-stud or Velcro) needs to go. 

 Insert the other piece of the push stud using the same technique as before.

Trim the sides of the purse to make the sides straight.  Undo the zips to halfway across the purse and cut the ends level with the purse sides.  Take the side pieces of fabric and fold them over by ¼ inch (0.5cm).  Press.

Lay one side along the side of the purse, raw edges together, and stitch along the crease.  Note that the side fabric should hang over the ends of the purse.  

Flip the fabric to the underneath.  Fold the fabric over the end of the purse (see photo below) and then fold the side fabric flat on the crease.  Pin or clip into place.  

Reinforce at both ends by sewing back and forth for 1.75ins (2cm) and stitch as close to the edge of the side piece as possible. 

Do the zips up and press. 

 

The credit cards in this picture are sticking out to show the pockets.  In your finished purse they will fit into the pockets neatly! Ditto the bank notes.  With two zipped sections you need only keep your most used cards in the pockets and the rest safely zipped away.