TM-April of Aprils Originals tutorial on sewing a little pleated zippered pouch

This is a little tutorial I came up with on how to sew a zippered pouch with a pleat. I am sure that many others do this differently but this is the method to my ‘madness’ so to speak.

The very first thing you need to do is to choose your fabrics. For this tutorial I have chosen to use Amy Butler Kashmir in Olive and line it with a beautiful coordinating blue Kona Cotton

You will need to cut out 2 pieces for the outer fabric, 2 pieces for the lining and interfacing for each piece, they should all measure the same. I choose to do a basic size pouch which starts out with pieces that are 10” wide. NOTE: I will be using a 7” zipper.




Ok, now iron the interfacing onto the fabric as you normally would. I have chosen to only line the outer fabric and I have used a light to medium weight fusible interfacing. If this pouch were going to hold electronics etc I would use a thick fleece interfacing so that there would be appropriate padding.


Making the pleat:
To start off mark the center of the fabric as I have done here in this photo (my center is 5”)
You will want to go over 1" from the center and mark then go over one more inch from that and mark (see photo A) . Bring the two marks together and pin, this makes one half of your pleat(see photo B ).Repeat for the other side of pleat.
Do this for all 4 pieces and then you are ready to start putting in the zipper!

Putting in the zipper:
First thing you do is lay the outer fabric down right side facing up, then lay the zipper upside down along the top edge of the outer layer of fabric (the zipper pull should be facing down to the outer layer of fabric)
Then lay the lining piece on top of that with the wrong side facing up.
To recap the zipper should be sandwiched in between the two pieces of fabric, the front side of the zipper should be touching the right side of the outer layer of fabric. The fabric pieces should be right sides touching. Here is a little pic to hopefully make this clearer.
Now pin all along the piece making sure to line up the edges of all three pieces and also making sure to pin the folds for the pleat, the pleats on both pieces should line up pretty closely.
Next step is to sew all the pieces together making sure to use your zipper foot on your sewing machine. Here is a close up of my piece being sewn up.
Now, this is what you should have when you turn the piece with right side out:
Now repeat this step for the other side.

Once you have done this for both sides my next step is to stitch along the top edge of each side. Here is a photo to show you what I mean.
You want to make sure to keep your stitches as straight as possible because this seam is seen on the finished product.

The next step is sewing the pouch together. First you will lay it out with both outer pieces together and the lining pieces together and you will pin all the way around. You want to make sure to fold the zipper ends towards the lining, here is a pic to demonstrate.
Make sure to open the zipper at least half way before you finish pinning the piece together (picture C). You will be so upset if you forget this step because you will have to take all of your stitches back out to get the zipper open so you can pull it right side out!!
Once you have the piece pinned all the way around you are ready to sew it together. You are going to leave an opening in the bottom of the lining so you can pull the outer layer through. Picture D shows how you are going to sew all the way around leaving an opening at the bottom of the lining.



















Once you have finished sewing around the piece next you will be turning the piece right side out. Carefully reach inside the opening in the bottom of the lining portion and grab the outer layer of fabric and pull through, here is a pic to demonstrate
Once you have the piece turned right side out you will want to fold in the seam and iron the opening in the bottom of the lining and sew closed. You can either hand sew it closed using an invisible stitch or you can sew it closed with your sewing machine. Congratulations you have just completed your cute little zippered pouch with a pleat. Here is what my finished product looks like.