Zip itself coin purse

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As part of my Christmas Shouldn't Cost the Earth series each week I'm making some hand-made stocking filler gifts. This week I'm trying out someone else's tutorial for these cute zip itself purses that I've had pinned and wanted to try for some time.

I used this tutorial from Craft Passion. It was a bit fiddly, and took a bit of figuring out - especially since I sew with what I have in my stash which isn't always exactly the right size for tutorials.  

 After 3 purses I understood how the pattern worked, so I made a 4th and final purse to show the bits I was confused with and to share my tips for following this tutorial to make these cute little novelty purses.

This was the first one I made.

Then I tried a one with a smaller zip and slightly narrower ribbon. That one ended up rectangular instead of a pyramid!

So then I tried one with a longer zip and some wide lace for a change!

Pretty don't you think?

So here is the final purse I made together with my notes on following the tutorial

So the tutorial says you need a 20" zip.  This green zip was exactly the right length by chance! You can use a shorter or longer zip - and ribbon of different widths, but this will change the size and shape of your purse if you follow the same measurements on the tutorial.

When you first attach the ribbon to the end of the zip - the measurement given is 2 3/4" from the end. This will be the width of the base of your purse. I chose to make mine a little smaller at 2.5".

The tutorial doesn't really say whether or not you hand or machine stitch this project - I machine stitched as much as a could and just hand-stitched the fiddly end and corner parts.

When it came to marking out where to join the zip in the last part of the tutorial, this is the part that confused me the most.

If you zip up your purse and flatten it - you want to put the pin markers in halfway.

One pin goes in the bottom part of the zip.

And the other pin - closest to the end of the zip goes in the top half.

Then when you unzip the purse again, you fold the end of the zip back to make the pins join.  I found I'd stitched the ribbon on too close to the end and needed to unpick a little!

Just make sure that both zip ends you fold down at the end are the same length!

As for a lining for the purse. I found using more of the same ribbon worked well - just the perfect size.

 I also found that wider ribbon was easier to work with as more could be machine rather than hand-stitched!

Although these purses are a bit fiddly to make, they are very cute and worth the effort!

And I think they make great little gifts too!

What do you think you could fill them with for gifts?