Transcripts
1. How to Sew a Zipper Pouch: Dear beginner sewists, did you know that if you can learn to sew a straight line, you can also install a zipper. If you can install a zipper, you can make a zipper pouch
to put all your stuff in. Then you can make pouches
for your friends that use their favorite colors or fabric with little strawberries on it. You can make versions
that have labels on the outside or pockets
on the inside, or quilted stitches
for fancy people or fully patchwork pieces
for funky fancy people. All I'm saying is if you have
a sewing machine and would like to make project with
that sewing machine, I'm going to show you how to cut and interface your fabric. That's a fancy term for
making it more stable. Then we'll prep and
install our zipper, assemble the bag,
box the corners, turn it right side out and marvel at how fun it was to use our hands and creativity for something so cute
and functional. Then you can do it again. You can make one for
your grandma or for someone who just has a
lot of stuff to carry. Hope to see you there. Love, Dylan M. [MUSIC]
2. Zipper Pouches + Beyond!: In this lesson,
we're going to meet the zipper pouch
we'll be making as well as look at
more advanced bags to which these skills can lead. The bag we'll be making
in this class is a small, medium zipper pouch. I love it because it's small
but it's super functional. You can throw it
into larger bags and keep your smaller
items organized. I use them all over the
house for various reasons. It's just a great small bag. It measures, the
completed width is about nine inches at the top
by six inches tall, and it has about a 2.5 inch
wide base at the bottom here. The main feature, of course, is it has a really nice
zipper closure and so we have a zipper
top and not only that, but we have these nice
zipper tabs on the side, which I'll talk a little
bit more about in a few minutes about how we can use that as a design element. Then the bag is fully
lined on the inside and the zipper is nicely taken
care of on both sides there. All the contents are safe
inside the zipper pouch. The feature that is making
it stand on its own without me having to hold it is not only the
sturdiness of the bag, but what is called
boxed corners. Down here we have this
2.5 inch base made by the box corners and I'll
show you how to do that. Great thing about this bag is it doesn't need a ton of materials. So you can get away with
using a quarter yard cut of fabric or a fat quarter
for both the exterior and the lining and
you can see that you can really do
some fun things with the different combinations of what you can
do for your bags. It usually takes me about an hour and a
half from start to finish to make one and you
can make an assembly line. I've done some before
where I've done some for a group of friends and so I'll pick out different fabrics and cut
them all at the same time, prep all the zippers
at the same time, and that can definitely cut
down on some of the time, but all in all, from getting all the materials out to cleaning up at the end, it takes me about
an hour and a half. At the end of the class, I'll be showing
you how to modify the base bag design
to have things on the outside like
labels or embroidery. I'll also show you how
to do inside pockets, like this bag right here has these two slit pockets
for me to slide inside. I'll show you how to do that. I'll show you how to
quilt the outside of your fabric if you want
to have a nice elegant touch like that and then I'll also
show you how to patchwork your exterior if you want
to have that kind of look. Those four modifications are
at the end of the class. But at least wanted to show you this bag because this one has a cool design element
in that I use contrasting fabric for the
different exterior panels. One has these green and
blue stripe and one side is the blue and pink
stripe and then it of course has
the solid lining. So just to give you an idea of some things you can
do with the design. You can split the outside
or like with this bag, this bag has a totally
seamless exterior. It's got this little
strawberry prints on both sides as well
as the zipper tabs. But then on the inside
I decided to do a fun split solid color lining with the pink and
that hot red orange. It's little touches like that that can take this basic bag and really make it something special and make it
something customized. Similarly, this is a bag that
I made for myself that has this awesome Frida fabric on it and is also
covered in dog hair. This is a good example
of how the zipper tabs themselves can become
their own design element. This bag has zipper
tabs that do not match the exterior fabric and it doesn't match the
interior fabric, which is this solid
chartreuse color. In this example, these tabs really
become a design element of their own that help enhance the overall style of the bags [NOISE]
which is pretty fun. This is a zipper pouch
that I made early on and you can see that
it doesn't have quite the same body
as the other ones. That's because this
is an example of a home deck weight canvas fabric for the exterior that has no inner facing and irregular quilting cotton lining that also has no inner facing. You can see the box
corners help [NOISE] it still stand on its own
and have its own integrity, but it's just a
little bit sloppier. I used this bag a lot. [LAUGHTER] This bag has
gotten a lot of use. Then eventually you can get into playing with
different materials. So this is a bag
that I use to store all of my bag hardware. Like this is a bag closure. This bag is made
entirely of nylon. I love the look of simple nylon. I think it's really
sleek and it's also really strong
and really durable, and so this bag is nylon on the inside and nylon
on the outside. I also use the really heavy
duty denim brass zipper here. The only caveat
with nylon is it's really slippery to sew
with and you can't use a high heat setting on
it with an iron and so you can't interface it the same way that we'll be
making this bag. But still another idea for you to keep in mind if something
you can do in the future. If you're feeling intimidated, I want to show you that this is the first bag I ever made. I went from my sewing machines sitting on the shelf for
six months because I was too scared to use it to making this thing after
watching a YouTube video. I didn't quote the fabric. I bought pre-quilted fabric. I want to perpetrate [LAUGHTER]
like I'm doing all that, but I did make the bag. I managed a metal zipper. I've got these little tabs. It's lined on the inside. If I couldn't make
this on my first try, you can absolutely make
this on your first try. What's cool about this is I actually ended up
using this bag. It has at least one scrap from almost every project
I've ever worked on. It's really fun to look
back through here, and this is a quote that I
made for my adopted mom and these were coasters
that I made for my friend Kelly's fabric
line when it came out, and so I've taken this first project and now it's like a keep
sake of its own. A reminder that I
can do things that are harder than I expect and
it wasn't that hard anyway. Now to get you excited about where these
skills can take you, I want to show you some more advanced bags that I've made. This is a purse
that I made myself. I've used it. [LAUGHTER] I think I made
it like four years ago in the fall and I have gotten
a lot of use out of it. You can see that it also
is a zipper closure bag, just like we are making today. It's even got the
little zipper tabs. But then we start to get into the more advanced
stuff with we've got this awesome magnetic closure
here, the magnetic snap. I also have this hardware
here, these little clips. I also made this strap, so I actually cut and saw
the full leather for this. You can see the bag. You can open it this
way and go in the top. Classic. I have
PILOT Precise V7. I'm usually a V5 girl
now and a quarter. Then in the back
here is where I've got my label and then this other pocket
that I can go into. [NOISE] Paul McCartney tickets. That sweet. Back in there. Also classic Dylan, a bobby pin. I remember I made
this on a weekend. I was a pattern tester for when this pattern was coming
out and it was lovely. It was a lovely thing
to make and I've gotten a lot of use
out of it and it's not too much harder than the
bag that we're making today. It just requires a little
bit more hardware. Stepping it up, I have this backpack purse
that I made years ago, and it's still one
of my favorites. It's got this beautiful
rifled paper, co print. I use these really beautiful
double-headed metal zippers from Pacific trimming. I have them custom size
to fit this pattern. It's got this really
beautiful solid gray lining. It's fully lined. Then on the inside here, you'll see that the lining, it's fully aligned,
but the seams are covered by what's
called binding. The bag that we're making, the seams are totally
hidden on the inside. It's just seamless. But this is another way
that bags can be made where the seams are sewn on the inside and then covered in binding. Then again, this one has its own inside zipper
that's fully lined. Little pocket zipper in there. Then on the back, you've got this little faux leather handle that I made and sold in there. I made the straps. Then I've got this beautiful
gold buckle hardware that we got to install. This was just another
really exciting bag that it takes a long time, like there's a lot
of components, but it's not difficult. It's tedious but fun, tedious work, I guess,
at least to me. This is a really
fun backpack purse. Then the last bag
I want to show you is actually this tote bag
that I made to take to quote market when I
was trying to get a fabric contract, which I did. I just wanted to make something really quick to show
them that I could sell. The grand plan originally was to get some of my own
fabric made on Spoonflower and then
make the bag from that but I ran out of time. But it doesn't matter
because I was able to still make this really
sophisticated tote bag. It's nice because it has the clean top edge
of a tote bag. But as you can see, it has this really nice
reassessed zipper top in here. From the side it
looks nice and clean, but then you still get to keep your content secure in there. I open it up, I've got an inset pocket right
here, a zipper pocket. Sorry, it's hard to show
the inside of a bag. I have two slip pockets on the side and then I made
myself a little key chain clips so that I could
clip my keys on the inside and not lose them. It looks like I've got
chopstick in this bag, mechanical pencil,
money. Oh my gosh. Money and pens. What a day? I'm going to put those
back in there and surprise myself again later. What a day. [NOISE] Then finally with the nice thing about this bag is it's got these genuine
leather handles. I bought a kit from Fancy Tiger Crafts that came with the rivets and everything to secure them in there
and it was a nice way to add just an elegant
touch to a homemade bag. With all that, let's get into
making our zipper pouch. In the next lesson, I'll provide an overview
of the necessary and nice to have materials to
make our zipper pouch.
3. Materials: In this lesson, I'll
provide an overview of the necessary and
nice-to-have materials to make our zipper pouch. There's a written
materials list provided in the class resources
section of the course. But I would highly recommend
watching the course all the way through before gathering
your own materials. These tools will
be introduced more thoroughly throughout
the bag making process. But here's a little intro. First, you'll need a
sewing machine and its accompanying user's manual. I'll be using a Bernina 770, and I think it's fair to
disclaim that this is a very nice and
expensive sewing machine that I've grown into
over the years. Her name is Edna. She's lovely. But I did not start on Edna. In fact, I started on a
three-quarter machine, meaning it's compact and I had no problem making the zipper
pouch will be making today. You do not need an
Edna to start either. Here's why I mentioned
having the manual handy. When I bought my first machine, the awesome folks at Ann
Arbor Sewing Center, told me to bite the bullet and spend an hour
reading through the manual to learn and reference how to
correctly thread it, how to wind the bobbin, how to clean and oil it, see all the fancy
stuff it can do, and to generally flip through to see what
it had to offer. I actually listened
to them and I got so much out of flipping
through my manual. It wasn't boring at all
and I refer to it whenever my stitches look weird or the machine needs
troubleshooting in general. Now I will pass the
sage advice off to you. I know it isn't sexy, but the manual to
your machine tells you how to run your machine. If you don't have
the physical copy, you can search for your
sewing machine model online and likely find a
PDF version to download. We will be using a single presser foot for this entire project,
a zipper foot. Some machines come
standard with a few feet, including a zipper foot, while others may require you
to purchase it separately. The presser foot is what helps secure and feed the fabric
through the machine; and they come in
different shapes and configurations for
different purposes. The zipper foot
in particular has a metal channel down the
center that rides nicely down the edge of the zipper with notches in either
side that allow the needle to get much closer to the zipper than is possible
with a regular foot. In wanting to keep the materials list as light as possible, I'll be showing you
how to assemble the entire bag with
the zipper foot. I'll demonstrate
changing my presser foot in a later video lesson, but it will be helpful
for you to refer to your sewing machine manual for instructions on how to
do so on your machine. The needle I'll be
using for this project is a size 12 universal needle. We'll talk about fabric in a moment but if you plan to use a home decorators weight or a canvas for
your bag exterior, you'll want to size up
to a size 14 needle. Next step is an iron, preferably a steamy one, and an ironing board or pad. I'll have my iron turn
to the cotton setting, which is its second to highest setting for the
duration of the class. If you're using a
different material, you may need to
adjust your heat. Let's talk fabric.
For this project, I'd recommend using
quilting cottons for the exterior and lining
fabric as they're accessible and easy to
work with and there won't be any surprises as you
follow along with me. If you'd like, you can use a home deck weight or a canvas
fabric for the exterior. But I would still recommend
a quilting cotton for the lining fabric to keep the layers manageable
for your sewing machine. If you're using a solid color
or non-directional print, you can get 1/4 yard cut for each the exterior
and the lining. If your fabric is
directional or you'll want to fussy cut in a
certain part of the design, meaning you want to make sure a certain part of the
design is showcased, you'll be safer with 1/2
yard or a fat quarter cut. When you go to a fabric shop and ask for a quarter yard cut, they'll cut a nine inch strip that's as long as the
width of the fabric. A fat quarter, on
the other hand, is when the yard is cut into four wide rectangles
or fat quarters. The caveat to using
accessible and easy to work with cotton is it isn't
very sturdy on its own, and so we use a material called interfacing to
help stabilize it. The interfacing we'll be
using we'll give our bag of sturdy shape and the strength to stand on its own. So proud. For our exterior
fabric will be using a non-woven fusible fleece
interfacing and for our lining we'll be using a lightweight woven
fusible interfacing. Let's break that down. Non-woven fusible
fleece interfacing is an interfacing
that is non-woven, meaning it's like
pressed together polyester and fusible, meaning it has glue
adhesive on one side to help secure it to the
fabric it's being iron to. I like fusible fleece
because it's sturdy, but the material is lofty and easy for my needle
to pass through. If I used it on both the
exterior and lining however, the bag would become
unnecessarily puffed up in the seams could be tough
for some machines to handle. The lightweight woven fusible
I use for the lining, on the other hand, is well, lightweight, meaning it doesn't add as much structure
as the fleece, but it also doesn't
add as much bulk. It's fusible like
the fleece and has adhesive that's
activated by a hot iron. Finally, woven means it's woven together much like the
quilting cottons we're using. To me, it's almost like adding a second layer of quilting cotton to the back
of the fabric. Interfacing is sold
at most fabric shops and cuts off of a bolt
just like fabric. If you're unsure
where to find it, don't be afraid to
ask someone for help. If you plan on using
a home deck or canvas weight fabric
for the exterior, you can skip the interfacing for the exterior and focus on
stabilizing the lining. I'll demonstrate
interfacing my fabric in a later video lesson. Next up is our zipper
and you'll want a 12 inch basic
nylon coil zipper. Sometimes it will be labeled
as a plastic zipper, but it shouldn't be the
chunky hard plastic. You'll be able to tell
by looking at it. If you're shopping online, you can search for 12
inch nylon bag zipper, and you'll be able
to get a little bit wider of a zipper, either will work
for this project. We will also need some thread. You are welcome to
match or coordinate your thread color with your
fabric though I tend to try to stick to coordinating
neutrals as much as possible to keep my thread
stash light and dynamic. I prefer a polyester thread
or a poly cotton blend. The sewing world has a
lot of opinions about thread and certainly it's
an important material. But for this project
you'll be okay grabbing a run of the
mill sew-all thread. But do you get the best
that's in your budget as cheap thread can cause more headaches and
waste in the long run. When it comes to cutting fabric, you'll want one of the
following two setups. The first and recommended if you can afford it
and plan to sell more than one bag is to get
a self-healing cutting mat, some acrylic rulers
and a rotary cutter. This round blade with a handle that looks like a pizza cutter. If that's outside your budget or access right now, that's okay. The second setup is to create pattern pieces using paper and a ruler and trace
around those to guide cutting the
fabric with shears. I've included instructions in the class resources and also demonstrated later
in the course. In either scenario, you'll
need some shears dedicated to cutting fabric as well as some
basic utilities scissors. Last on the got to have it
list is pins and or clips. I use both in my sewing
practice and love them. If you're going to start
with one, I would go pins, no clips, no pins, you got to have
pins. Final answer. Last item for real on the got to have it list is a seam ripper. Perfectionism doesn't live here so best to have
one at the ready. A few tools on the don't
need but are helpful to have list are little snipes
for trimming threads, designated marking tools
for marking on fabric, some are chalk, some
are water-soluble. I also have this point turner, that helps make
sure all the seams and corners are as sharp as they can be as the bag gets
finished being assembled. Finally a Taylor's ham, which can help press
trickier projects. Finally, on the
totally optional list, if you have a zipper
that has a hollow pole, you can get fun twine and
beads and pom-poms or leather to pull through
to make a zipper pole. You can also buy sewing
labels to attach to the exterior or lining of the bag to add some personality. I will show you four
modifications you can make on the pouch at
the end of the class. This is a lot of stuff. When I first started sewing, I remember feeling
like I was always in need of some crucial
and expensive tool. But take a deep breath,
make a budget for yourself, borrow what you can
and don't forget to check thrift
stores for irons, fabric, and other helpful tools. It's okay to go slow and not
have everything just right. You deserve to begin. In the next lesson, we'll set up and clear our sewing area.
4. Clearing the Space: In this lesson, we'll set up
and clear our sewing area. I know that once I've got
my materials in hand, I want to get
started right away, but it always serves me well to prep and clear my area first. Generally speaking,
I have some table or flat surface that I like to use as a work area for cutting, measuring, marking,
pinning, etc. I also have the surface that my sewing machine Edna sits on, and it's important to free
this area of any bits and bobs that can be knocked off
or get in the way of sewing. We'll worry about threading and prepping our machines
in a later lesson, for now it's just about
clearing the space. Finally, I like to
plug in my iron and get my ironing
board cleared off. Once your area is clear
and you're ready, don't forget to add in some
intentional joyful bits, like some music
or an audio book, maybe get a snack ready or
light a scented candle, even setting an intention like, "I'm just going to enjoy
my sewing time today," is a great way to get started. This quiet time is precious, so be sure to make it
special for yourself. In the next lesson, we'll begin our project by cutting
and pressing our fabric.
5. Cutting + Pressing Fabric: In this lesson, we'll begin
our project by cutting, and pressing our fabric. The fabrics I've chosen for the zipper pouch
I'll be making in this class is this
Kelly Ventura print. I think it is so beautiful. I've paired it with this deep tomato rusty, solid interior. For the zipper tabs, I think I'm going to go ahead, and have a seamless look. I'll cut the zipper tabs
from this exterior prints, so that that all matches. I'm going to show you how to
cut with a rotary cutter, as well as using
a pattern piece, and tracing around it, and using fabric shears. But before we're going
to do either of those, we want to just rough-cut
out the fabric with shears. I've gone ahead, and found a
nice corner of the fabric. Now I just want to make
sure that I cut out. Again, it doesn't
have to be perfect. A little bit more than 10, and a half by eight inches. Ten, and a half by eight is the measurement size
for our pattern piece. Since we still need
to press the fabric, I just want to make sure that I give myself some wiggle room, and cut larger than that. I can look at the
numbers right on my mat. If you don't have a cutting mat, you can just use
a regular ruler. It's okay. Here's 11 inches. Since I've got this, and it's probably not showing
on the camera as well. But this is the salvage edge, and so I don't want
to sow with that. Just to give myself
a lot of room, I'm just going to come all
the way out to 14 inches. Then instead of just cutting
a little longer than eight, I'm going to double it, so that I can have both the
front, and back pieces. I'm basically just cutting
out a piece that's large enough for me to cut a
front, and back from. [NOISE] Then my zipper tabs is just going to be one piece of fabric that's three inches
by two, and a half. I'll just cut [NOISE]
a square down here. See, I'm not even worried
about cutting nicely. This is literally
just a rough cut just to get it away from the
rest of the fabric. I've got the exterior, and the zipper tabs. I'll just do the
same for my lining. I'm using a fat quarter
piece for this, and so I'm not going to cut it down
any further than that. This is a fine size
for me to work with, and then we can cut
it down from there. If you're curious, this is a conic cotton in the
color terracotta. [NOISE] Now that we already
have our fabric rough cut, we're going to go
ahead, and press it. [NOISE] I've got my iron heated
up to the cotton setting, which is a number
six with this iron. We'll start with
the smaller piece. If you've never ironed
or press fabric before, the main thing is not to
do it like in cartoons or movies where they're just roughly moving back, and forth. I like to set the fabric down, and really let the
weight of the iron like I'm almost holding back, so that the full weight
of the iron isn't on it. I just let the iron do the job. If you go back, and forth a lot, if you really work the fabric, right now it's okay
because we haven't cut it. But once you've got
it cut accurately, if you iron it too harshly, you can start to warp how
this is woven together, and you can actually
mess up your pieces. It's best to just
treat your fabric, and your pattern pieces
really delicately. This one aside, and keep going. [NOISE] If you don't have a steam setting
or you're using a material that you
can't use steam on, you can use some spray starch
or use different sprays. You can buy at fabric
stores that are supposed to help this process. But I find a steamy
iron usually does it. Even this little crease here, I'm not too worried about that. I just want to press the fabric enough that I can
cut it accurately. Anytime you're
working with a solid, you may notice some colors shifting when you press
with a steamy heat. Do a test on a scrap to make
sure it's not permanent. But anytime I've
noticed a color shift, it's just temporary,
and it's just while the material is really hot. In the next lesson,
I'll show you how to cut fabric with a rotary cutter.
6. Cutting Fabric with a Rotary Cutter: In this lesson, I'll
show you how to cut fabric with a rotary cutter. [NOISE] Before we
cut our big pieces, I'm going to use the
zipper tab piece to show you the method of cutting
with a rotary cutter. I want you to think
of there being two types of cuts we're doing
with the rotary cutter. Sometimes we're
cutting just to create a straight line and
to show things up, and sometimes we're
cutting to make an accurate measured cut. Since we cut the width and
the length of the fabric, that means we're going
to be doing each twice. For the width, we're
first going to find a straight line and cut
just for a straight line, and then the second cut, we'll measure from that to
create an accurate cut. Then we'll turn it sideways,
and we'll do it again. Let me show you what I mean. Right now, my fabric
actually does have a straight line because this
was the edge of the fabric. However, like I said, that's the salvage and I don't
actually want to use that to sew with and so I'm going
to want to cut that off. The very first cut
that I make with any piece is just to
create that straight line. Now, you don't have to cut. If you want because this
fabric is woven together, you could pull a thread out, and then actually
rip the fabric, and it will rip
perfectly along one of those warp or weft lines. However, I don't
like to do that, I like to just cut it. Again, for the first cut, this is just a straight cut, so I'm not paying attention to any of the numbers on here. I'm just paying
attention to making sure that I'm cutting this off, and then I'm getting a
pretty straight line. When I'm ready to cut,
I go ahead and secure the acrylic ruler under my hand, grab my rotary cutter, pull down the guard, and I'm going to do downward
and forward motion, pressing up against
the edge of the ruler. As soon as I'm done with a line, I always put the guard back on. It might seem excessive, but I've never cut my fingers, so it's a good tip. [LAUGHTER] We did our first cut, the first one to
make it straight. Our second cut then is
going to be for accuracy. I'm going to flip this guy over. Now, I'm going to use whatever measurement I'm
looking for as my guidelines. This piece needs to be three
inches by two and half, and so I'll do my
three-inch side first. I need three inches so I'm
just going to make sure the three-inch part
of this ruler lines up on that clean edge
that we just made. It looks pretty
good. You can see the three inches is protected so that if I come in here and I
accidentally veer off path, I'm not going to cut into the
fabric I want to be using. That's all protected
by the ruler. Again, I'll pull my guard
down [NOISE] guard back up. There we've got a perfect
three-inch width right there. But now I need my two-and-a-half inches going the other way. Now, I'm going to rotate
my fabric and start again. We're back to the first cut. I just need a straight
line to go off of. If I'm not ready to measure, I need to make sure
that this is shored up. But unlike that very
first cut we did, I now have these two
straight edge lines to use to help me create
this straight line. Again, I don't have to
care about the numbers, but I am going to use the ruler and the
lines on the ruler to help me line up against the edges that I know
are already straight. Then I'm just going
to cut off the excess so that we now have a third, put my guard back on, we have a third perfect line that is perpendicular to those
first two cuts we made. Then you guessed it. This cut is for accuracy. Now we are going to pay
attention to the numbers. This time, I need
two-and-a-half. The two-and-a-half marking
line is right here, line that up on my fabric
and a phrase that [LAUGHTER] any sewist will pass
on when they're teaching is measure
twice, cut once. Always just double, triple check that you've got
the right number here. I can see that I've got 1, 2, and 1/2. That's what I want. Everything else is looking good, can lower my guard. Now I have a perfect three-inch by two-and-a-half inch piece. Let me do that again on
these bigger pieces. This time I want to show you right-handed
versus left-handed. Now some of you will be
ambidextrous like I am. The cutter will feel right in both hands
and that's great. In which case, it
won't matter as much. But if you do find that you are right or left-handed with it, then this will be helpful. First, let's do
right-handed cutting. Actually, what I'm going to do is just cut this
in half because I know I'm making two pieces because this piece
is big right now, and I can just cut it
down with scissors. [NOISE] This is
going to be one of the lining pieces for my
bag and we want it to be 10.5 by 8 inches tall. I'm going to get my 12.5
inch ruler out for this. Again, the very
first cut that I'm making is just to make
a straight line and so I'm going to make
sure that I have at least 10.5 by 8 in
this general area. Make sure that I've
got some excess. I'm just going to eyeball it and see that looks pretty good. It looks like this straight edge is aligned with the salvage, so it looks pretty straight. That's going to be a
good first cut to make. [NOISE] Now if
you're right-handed, that means that you want to be cutting on the right-hand side, which means that
now this clean edge that we made needs to go
on the left-hand side. I'm going to rotate it around. Now that we've cut
for straightness, we need to cut for accuracy. This is the width, so it's
going to be a 10.5 inch piece. I'm going to go ahead
and find my 10.5 inch line and line it up against that straight
edge that we just made. Now this is going to be
a perfect 10.5 inch cut, which is what I
need for my width. Again, if I accidentally go off the side or if I do
something wrong, my fabric is still protected. I won't have to
accidentally waste this. [NOISE] I've got my 10.5 going across and now I need to do my eight
inches up and down. I'm going to rotate the piece again and we're ready to make our first
cut for this side. Now again, it's not
just a random cut. I now have straight lines on the top and bottom to guide me. I'm just going to line
up any ruler markings, doesn't matter which ones. These straight solid
lines are easier for me to use that's
why I just rotated it. I'm just going to make sure
that I'm lining up on one of those edges and then I can go ahead and cut this side [NOISE] Three of my
edges are perfect now. [LAUGHTER] It's not an
accurate measurements. Now we need to cut for accuracy. I rotated it around and now I need eight inches for this cut. Here's my eight. I'm going
to make sure that line, lines up on that straight edge. I can see that this is lining
up nicely with that edge. Everything should be nice and straight and I can
see that if I cut, I'm going to have a nice
perfect eight inch cut. [NOISE] There It is. Cut down perfectly to 10.5 by eight with a
right-handed rotary. Now if you're left-handed, as you may have guessed,
it will be the opposite. My first cut for
straightening off is going to happen on the left
side. Over here. Generally just trying to eyeball it so that it's straight
with the salvage since I know the salvage line is
straight [NOISE] cut. Now to get my accuracy cut, I'm going to rotate it this way. For my 10.5 line, I find the 10.5 inch mark here. Lined it up on the right
side of my fabric. Hold down [NOISE]
and cut on the left. I broke my ruler at one
point and I don't want to get a new one and so that's why that piece
caught right there. That's my 10.5. and now I need to make a straight
edge on the other side. I'm just going to use any of these lines to line up
to make sure that I'm straight here. That's Good. For the final cut, get that edge on
the other side on my eight-inch marking measure
twice got my eight inch. This is my 10.5. Good to go. I can cut. That is how to cut fabric with a rotary cutter is
my preferred method, especially for smaller
pieces like this. But if you are not ready to
invest in a setup like this, self-healing mats and rulers and everything can get pricey, then you can do what I
did when I started out. You can make pattern pieces. In the next lesson, I'll
show you how to cut fabric with fabric shears
and a pattern template.
7. Cutting Fabric with Shears + a Pattern Piece: In this lesson, I'll
show you how to cut fabric with fabric shears
and a pattern template. That is how to cut fabric
with a rotary cutter. Is my preferred method, especially for smaller
pieces like this. But if you are not ready to
invest in a setup like this, self-healing mats and rulers and everything can get pricey. Then you can do what
I did when I started out and you can make
pattern pieces. Especially for smaller
projects like this that have just really
simple shapes, this can be a nice way to do it. I'm actually going to use a filing folder because the card stock is a little
thicker than paper, but you could definitely use printer paper,
whatever you have. I'm going to pretend
I don't have an acrylic ruler and just
use a regular old ruler. I'm basically just going to make a piece of this that
is 10.5 inches by 8. [NOISE] I have my 10.5 by 8 there. I can see if I lay this
piece of fabric on top that it's the right size, and then not using our
fancy fabric shears, just regular old utility
scissors; I can cut this out. [NOISE] Now what I can do is I can double
up my lining fabric, lay my template on top, and I can use a
marking pencil of some kind to just trace
around the fabric. [NOISE] Now I can use my fabric shears and just carefully cut around
the perimeter. Now since I'm doing
two layers and I don't want them to move, I'm going to put a
few pins in place. Whenever I'm cutting from
traced pattern lines, I like to cut just on the
inside edge of the drawn line. Oops, I got a little bit of a tail there at the
end, it's okay. You can see why a rotary cutter and mat
is so nice to have, it's just really fast. But that's the trade-off. It's expensive, so if you
have the money to give, then it will save you time, but if you don't have
the money to give, then you can use some of your own time and still
get the same result. [NOISE] Let me take
these pins out. Now with that, we have
our two exterior pieces, our two lining pieces, and our zipper tab. Now you know how
to cut fabric with a rotary cutter, mat, and ruler, and you also know how to make your own pattern pieces and to trace and cut with
fabric shears. In the next lesson, I'll show you how to interface fabric.
8. Interfacing Fabric: In this lesson, I'll show
you how to interface fabric. The process for cutting out our interfacing is
similar to the fabric, in that we're going to start
with a general rough cut and then cut it down accurately
with our rotary cutter. Again, if you don't
have a rotary cutter, you can use your pattern piece just like we did
in the last video. It's very possible
that when you bought your interfacing for
this project or when you buy your interfacing for this
project that you will buy a cut off of a bolt
like like this. I make so many bags
that I ended up just buying bolts of the two
interfacings that I use. I'm going to be
cutting off of a bolt, but you probably have a
smaller cut to work with. I'll start with my fleece. It's doubled up, which is great because I'm
going to need two pieces. Then I can just go ahead and lay my pattern piece down
and cut around it. Now, I'm using different fabric shears for this because
I happen to have them. Some people say it's okay to use your fancy fabric
shears on this, some people say to use
your utility scissors. I have this pair of sewing scissors that
are technically shears, but they're for
situations like this. They're not as nice
as my Gingher shears. I try to keep this tip and
this point really sharp. I like to have just
a cheaper pair of Fiskars on hand for
stuff like this. But if you only have nice
shears and utility scissors, I would use your utility
scissors for this. I've got two pieces
for the exterior, and I will do the
same for my lining. Now, this is the exterior piece, but obviously it's
all the same size, so it doesn't matter
which one I use. [NOISE] You are welcome to
cut a piece of the thinner, the lightweight
woven interfacing for your zipper
tabs, if you'd like. I don't think it's necessary. I think it's just an
unnecessary extra step, but you do you. Now I'm going to go ahead
and cut these down to size. Since they're
already doubled up, I'm just going to
cut them doubled up. It just saves some time. The reason that I don't
double cut my exterior or my fabric pieces this way is it's just a
personal preference, I get scared that
things are going to shift when I'm cutting
multiple layers and for my exterior where the fabric is going to be really seen and I really
need accurate cuts, I don't want to
risk it and so I'd rather take the time to
cut the pieces separately. But the interfacing doesn't
matter if it's as accurate, if it ends up being a little
bit too big, we can trim it. If it's a little bit
too small, that's okay. I'm just not as worried, I'm not as precious with the interfacing as I am
with cutting the fabric. I'm going to start
with just the cut too. Sure everything up. This is
actually a bad practice. Do you see how I
have my material right in my cutting path? If I got a little jazzy, I could go a little bit too far and then accidentally
cut into that. Try to keep your
cutting path clear. Now this is a nice time
to be ambidextrous. Since the pieces are layered up and I have
this really nice line, if I try to rotate it, there's a chance that those will shift and no longer be aligned. Instead of rotating it, I'm just going to switch
rotary cutter hands. Now I need 10.5, but then I am going to rotate
it for these other cuts. I guess I don't make sense
and I'm inconsistent. Now I'm doing the other
cuts so I can use this straight line that I
just cut to line this up, just to get my straightaway and then if I need eight inches, here's my eight, line that up. I don't know if this
will be confusing. This is a quarters ruler, I think this half inch is to be able to add on a half-inch
to what you're doing. But what it's about
to do is add on. It's about to make my cut eight and-a-half inches
instead of eight. I'm going to rotate
my ruler to get a side that doesn't
add on that half inch. Great. Now we'll do the
same for the fleece. Now with these cut down to size, we're good to bring in
our iron and fuse them. I'm going to start by
fusing my lightweight woven fusible to my lining. Now, the main thing
to know is that one side of the interfacing
is going to feel rough, that's the side that has
the adhesive on it and the other side is just going
to feel like normal fabric. I'll bring in my exterior piece. If I'm using a print,
I just want to make sure that I'm fusing
this to the back side. This is the right side, this is the right side
of the fabric that I want to be showing
and I would make sure that it's face down and then I would put
the adhesive side, the rough side to the
back of the fabric. I'm using a solid and so it doesn't matter
what side I put it on. But again, if this were a print, I would want my print to be
face down, wrong side up. I'm going to take
my interfacing, here's the rough
side with the glue, is going face down onto the fabric so that my regular
feeling fabric is up. Because I don't want my hot
iron to touch that glue. Now what I can do is
I'm just going to press the iron in the
middle and again, I'm just letting the
weight of the iron. I'm not I'm not pressing at all, my hand is just guiding it, and just gently bringing
the iron across the fabric. Again, I don't want
to work it too much. I don't want to go back
and forth too much. I'm just trying to get
enough heat onto the back of this interfacing so that that glue melts and
fuses to the fabric. I don't know if you can
see it on the camera, but there's a little
corner of interfacing touching my ironing board that's not touching the fabric, and so I'm going to get
a little stickiness on my ironing board when I peel
that up, but that's okay. This is just a little
bit. You can see now that's it's like I have a double thick fabric
that's just nicely fused all the way around
and I just like to check to make sure that
I got all the edges. If anything feels loose, I can turn it over
and start again. I don't know if you noticed,
but I always like to start in the middle
and move out. That helps keep any
weird air bubbles, air pockets forming, keeps
everything nice and neat. You can see this fabric drapes, this is the one
that's not interface. This is just a piece of fabric. You can see it drapes
right over my hand, it shows all these bumps. Whereas this interfaced one is just a little bit smoother. It's got a little
bit more body to it. Same thing, adhesive side down on the wrong
side of the fabric. If you have a solid
there is no wrong side. Start in the middle., and just slowly pull the iron
as it melts all that glue. I'm not pushing, I'm letting the
iron do the work. Be careful, you know how
chefs can touch things that are really hot because they lose the feeling
in their finger, I've done that as a psoas. This doesn't feel
too hot for me, but beware, this will be hot. You just ran over it
with a very hot iron. Again, I'm just
going to check the corners and the edges, make sure everything's good. Looks like we fused. We're looking good. Now when
it comes to the fleece, we're going to do that a
little bit differently. The lightweight woven interfacing
is woven like a cotton. I think it is a
cotton and so it can withstand the heat just
like our fabric can. This is polyester fleece
and if I were to put this hot iron on top of
this, it would melt, it would get all stuck
to my iron and so I can't go from the back like
I did with the other piece. I'm going to go from the
front with the fleece. This time just like
before the fleece has a really rough glue dots side and there's like
little glue bumps, and the other side is soft
and lofty and fleecy. That's the side that I don't
want touching the fabric, I want the glue to be touching
the back of the fabric. This time I'll lay
the fabric down, right side up again so that the back is
touching the adhesive. I'm going to try
and be even more careful about lining this
one up because again, anywhere that fleece
is poking through that adhesive is going to
melt right to my iron, which can just junk it up. I just want to be careful. I'm going to start in the middle and work my way out
just like I did before. The fleece,
especially is good to take an extra second
over the corners. If you've never fused before, definitely use it on
a test scrap first to make sure that nothing
weird happens. Okay, looking good. If I compare these two, this is the lining that's interfaced with a
lightweight woven, you can see that they
both have nice body, but the one with the
fleece just has even more loftiness and body to it. If I compare it to the
totally an interfaced fabric, you can see the difference. They're both being
draped over my hand. But this one has that really nice long bend and this one is just reacting
right to the shape of my hand. I think interfaced cottons
are really satisfying. I love the pattern pieces,
it's just satisfying. You'll have to let me know
if you feel the same. I went fast there, but again, I put my interfacing
glue dot side up. I put the back of my
fabric on top of that, so that the glue fuses to
the back of the fabric. I was hoping one of
them wouldn't fuse. I should have left
one unfused so that you could see, but
you'll see it. The fabric will just feel a little loosey-goosey on the interfacing and not
like one cohesive unit. Our fabric is totally interfaced
ready for bag making. The only thing you want
to check is if you have any excess that
needs to be trimmed. I don't mean like
little tiny bits, but anything that could
throw off the bag making. For instance, let me
get these out of here, do you see how there's a
little bit of interfacing poking through up
here and down here? I could trim that if I want. But in this case, I
actually think that it is correcting the shape of
the pattern piece like and all of that is going to
get caught up in the seams anyway and so I'm not
worried about trimming that. What I would want
to trim though is if I had a really nice rectangle of fabric and then a little bit of that fleece were
sticking out or something. I would want to trim
that because that could throw off my
sewing when I'm sewing. Weird sentence, but just
take a look if you see that you got off a little
bit and there's a big triangle sticking
out or something. Just go ahead and straighten it back up, sure it backup, use your ruler and we will
be ready to prep our zipper. In the next lesson, we'll
prepare our zippers.
9. Prepping the Zipper: In this lesson, we'll
prepare our zippers. The first step in preparing
our zipper is taking our zipper tab and
pressing it into shape. I'm going to turn it
over to the wrong side, and I'm going to fold
it hot dog style, which I'm assuming is
an American phrase. But basically, I want to
fold it along the length. You can see along the length, and then after you
press it like that, you're going to open it and
fold the outside edges in. Fold it again and press it. Be careful when you're pressing these tiny little areas that your fingers don't
get hit with steam. We basically folded
in all the raw edges, and now on one edge we just have a nice folds and on the
other we have two folds. Then I'm just going
to cut this in half. You're welcome to fold it in half or mark it or measure it, but it doesn't have
to be perfect, we just want to generally
cut those in half. I'm going to show you two
types of zippers because more than likely if this is your very first time
working with a zipper, you're going to go to
a big box store and this is what they're
going to have just a regular old zipper. I told you to get a
12 inch so that it's big enough for us to
cut down to size. I'm just going to open this up. With my zipper out
what we're going to be doing is cutting 9.5 inches from the
center of this zipper. The zipper comes with a little
metal stopper on one end, and then at the top of the pole, there's another metal
stopper at the top. That makes it so that the zipper pull can't fly off
the zipper tape. But we're actually cutting
those off because we don't want to accidentally
sow over those. That's why we get a
bigger zipper than we need and then cut
it down to size. I'm going to put
my ruler on here, and in-between these two stops, I'm going to measure 9.5 inches. We're going to use our
utility scissors for this. Important before you cut this
that you get this zipper pull back into the safe area. If we were to cut
right now like this, we would essentially, cut the pole right off and
then things would not be good. I'm going to pull
the zipper back into the safe area and then
just cut on my marks. Now, I've got my 9.5
inch super ready to go. Now you need to be careful, there's nothing that's
going to stop this. I tried to keep the pole
away from the edge to remind myself to not accidentally
pull it off of there. That is how you can cut
your zipper if you are buying one that's already
sized and made from the store. However, and again, since I make a lot of bags, I like to buy zipper tape
that is by the yard. Actually, the reason I also like to buy it
online and by the yard is because you can get a bigger
variety of widths of zipper. See how this is the one
I bought from the store. See how not only the
tape is thinner, but the actual zipper teeth are thinner too, it's totally fine. It's going to work
for this project. But sometimes with bags you want something that's
going to be a little bit hefty and so I like
buying coil zipper by the yard and then buying
a zipper pulls and then just pulling it on myself and then cutting
it down to size. Let me show you how to do this. It's going to look
complicated on camera. It's going to look
like I'm fighting it. But what you want to
do is slip one end of the zipper tape onto one side of the zipper pull and
then hold it there, it's going to hold it in place. Then I'm going to put
the second one in. This is the part where
it's going to look like very confusing on camera, even though it's not too bad. I've got that on there. Then do you see
how I'm securing? I'm holding both edges
of the zipper tape on either side so that I can hold those and pull up on the
zipper at the same time. It's really hard to do this
on camera and explain it. Let me just pull
it on. Here we go. Now, I've got a
great zipper tape ready to go and same thing, I can just measure
it and cut it. Again, I don't want
to cut it now, I'll cut that pull off of there, so I want to get the poll
back into the safe area. The reason I prefer using
nylon zippers over metal ones, I have used bras zippers
in the past and honestly, just like a little
too heavy duty for a zip pouch like the bras
zipper is you can buy. They're more like denim
zippers and to have to push and pull that zipper
for a little zip pouch, it actually just
didn't work out. I prefer to have a metal
zip pull on a nylon zipper. Not only that you're sewing
machine can sew right over this without breaking,
which is really nice. I prefer to do a nylon
zipper with a metal pole. Now, when I was
first making bags, there wasn't a lot of
bag making materials, but now it's a lot more popular. In places like Sallie
Tomato or MLA bags, they sell hardware now like this and it's easier to get
your hands on cool zippers. This looks like a metal zipper, it looks metallic but it's
actually nylon just like this. My machine can sow right over it and it's
not a problem but I get the fancy look of metal and so lots
of zipper options. But in either case, in regardless of what zipper you have or what you're using, the next part is we
want to take these tabs and pin or clip them on
the ends of our zipper. On the closed end, it's really easy to
just get that on there, and if you're using pins, then you'll pin like this. But this is one
of the uses where I think clips are
really helpful. If you've got pins, then that's how you'll
want to pin it on there. But if you've got clips, the open-end is a
little trickier, the closed-end took me no time, but the open-end, there's
two things happening. On one hand, I want to make
sure that this is lined up and that I clip it
so that it's closed. I want to make sure that I
don't accidentally lined it up like this and then
the zipper can't close because there's a bubble. I want to keep it neat. But if I pull my zipper
too close to the end here, you can see that,
that actually gives more tension and pulls
these apart further. This is one of those things I'm explaining with my words now and realizing it might
sound more confusing. But basically, I like to
pull my zipper far away from where I'll be
clipping so that I don't have the tension
of the zipper poll. Then I just like to
walk my fingers up by pulling the nylon taped together just to make sure everything is
going to be neat. Then while I'm pinching
these together, I'm just going to go ahead
and slip this side on. Again, this would be a time
when I think clips are way better than pins,
just much faster. Then I can check just to
make sure that there's not going to be any
problems with that zipper. Pinch it closed under the
clip and we look good. Now, our zipper is prepped and ready to have
these tabs sewn on. In the next lesson, we'll thread our machines and cover basic sewing techniques. If you've threaded and sewn
on your machine before, you can skip this lesson.
10. Threading the Machine + Basic Sewing Introduction: In this lesson, we'll thread our machines and cover
basic sewing techniques. If you've threaded and sewn
on your machine before, you can skip this lesson. First step is
filling the bobbin, the bottom spool of
thread in the machine. I know for sure my
fancy machine does it a little bit differently
so as per usual, check your manual and
also you can check YouTube for machine
specific basics too. Anyway, mine starts by putting the thread on this top spool, threading it through
some other mechanisms, and wrapping it onto
the empty bobbin. When I switch this on, the bobbin will start spinning
and winding with thread. I can let it fill
and stop on its own but I tend to like to stop it when it's a little
bit less than full. How you put the bobbin
into the case and into the machine is important so make sure you
check your manual. I've dropped mine into its case and now I'm clicking
it into its housing. I like to pull the
thread a little to make sure it's not
stuck and cut it on the blade that's
here to make sure the tail that's left
isn't too long. Now the bobbin is set. Now I'm going to take my size 12 sewing needle and insert it with the flat shaft facing the back into the
needle housing. Some machines have a turn screw
you can use to secure it. Mine requires this
tiny screwdriver to tighten it into place. Make sure you're inserting
the top of the needle as far as it will go
into its housing. With the needle in place, I can put on my zipper foot. You'll check your manual
for yours, of course, but mine has a cone-shape
that it slides onto and a hook closure that slides
down to lock it in place. One of Edna's fancy features is this guy that attaches
to some other feet to make them better at feeding multiple layers of fabric
through the machine evenly. In this case, I'll bring him down and click
it into place. The main thing that's different
about a zipper foot is the needle placement must be offset from center
in order to work. Otherwise, the needle
is going to come straight down onto that
metal foot and break. After putting on a zipper foot, I always adjust my
needle position. Yours may be a button, a knob, or a lever. Mine is a button that
allows me to move the needle a few places
to the left or right. For now I'll move
it to the left. I can use the hand wheel on
the side of my machine to test that the needle is in the clear and won't hit
that metal piece. Time to top thread the machine. Top threading, once
you have it down becomes muscle memory
so please don't feel intimidated by how random and confusing it seems the
first few times you do it. You can watch YouTube videos. You can check your manual. As I've said, I still
check my manual from time to time just to make sure that I'm still
doing it right. Not threading the
machine correctly probably accounts for 80 percent of my own sewing issues and ones my friends
have come to me with. Sewing machines
rely on a system of tension disks to be able
to control the quality of stitches being made and accidentally slipping
the thread between the wrong disks or omitting a step can completely ruin
the stitches that come out. I'll pull my thread through the mechanisms and
down to the needle. My machine happens to have
a needle threader which is great to use but before
I had that feature, I would thread the needle
eye front-to-back manually. With everything in place, I make sure I've got
a straight stitch and set my stitch
length to three. This means the length of my stitch will be
three millimeters. It's time to grab
some scrap fabric and so our first test stitches. I'll put the fabric in place, lower the presser foot, hold the thread tail with
my finger off to the side, place my hands on the
fabric and gently press down on the foot pedal until the needle begins to move. Pressing harder on the foot pedal will make the machine go faster and taking your foot off the pedal will
stop any movement. You can practice back
stitching by holding the correct button or
lever on your machine, which will reverse the
direction that the machine is sewing and by doing so, securing the stitches
that are being gone over. My machine has a
button that will automatically cut the thread and raise the needle and the presser foot when
I'm done sewing. If yours doesn't
have these features, press the needle position
button to raise it up, raise your presser foot and pull the fabric and thread out
far enough to cut it. Most machines have handy blades built-in to help
with this task but snips are a perfect
alternative for the job if yours doesn't
have that feature. If something isn't looking
right with your stitches, refer to the
troubleshooting video near the end of the course. Before we go, we have one
last thing to talk about, seam allowance, and where to look when you're
actively sewing. Seam allowance tells
us how far away from the edge of the fabric the
needle should be stitching. For example, the most
common seam allowance and quilting is a quarter-inch, meaning the needle
should be dropping down a quarter inch away from
the edge of the fabric. Most machines have
precise markings on the plate of the
machine to help with this. My quarter-inch mark is here. When I'm sewing, my job
is to make sure the edge of the fabric is staying
aligned with this marking. It can be tempting to
look at the needle. It's so hypnotizing but the
needle is doing its job. We need to be doing ours by accurately guiding the fabric to the needle and the
way to do that is to keep an eye on the
seam allowance marking. That's all good and fine but we'll be using
a zipper foot. When it comes to a zipper foot, since the needle
has to be offset, the markings are no
longer accurate. Because of this, I did some stitching tests and made a little chart that I
taped to the front of my machine that tells me which seam allowance is produced
by each needle position. For example, having my needle on negative 4 or negative 5, when my fabric is running
down the right side of the foot gives me a seam allowance of
about 3/8 of an inch. Having my needle at negative 3 when my fabric is running down the right side of
the foot gives me a generous quarter
inch seam allowance. For the zipper pouch,
we'll be using an 1/8 of an inch as well as the
3/8 inch seam allowance. It may be helpful to
experiment with yours to see what settings will yield
those seam allowances. In the next lesson, we'll attach our zipper tabs.
11. Attaching the Zipper Tabs: In this lesson, we'll
attach our zipper tabs. I'm ready now to sew
the short distance across these zipper
tabs to attach them. First thing is I want to make
sure my needle placement is correct and move mine
to negative four. Now just like I showed you, notice how this hand is holding down the thread that's
coming off the needle. I'm holding down
the thread tail. I'm going to lower
my presser foot. Mine's button, yours
might be a lever. I'm just going to make
sure that the edge of my tab stays lined up with
the edge of my presser foot. That's all I'm watching
while I'm sewing. Now, one caveat is, even though this is a
very small distance to sew and it's just
a straight stitch, I could have a little
issue at the beginning getting the feed dogs
to catch the fabric. You might notice when
I start sewing that it seems like I'm stuck in place. That's just because I'm
waiting for those feed dogs to catch and then once
I see the fabric catch, I can go back to paying
attention to right here. I'll go ahead. Now, since I warned you, it actually didn't have
any problem catching it. Now, I'm just going
to pull this pin out. Someone just rang the doorbell. Now, just nice and calm, I'm just going to let my
machine go over the nylon. The nylon zipper is no problem. Take this other pin out
so we don't sew over it. I'm just going to finish strong
all the way to the edge. Now, if you don't have an
automatic cutter like I do, then I would do
needle up and then presser foot up, pull, and cut. We have one side of the
zipper tab attached. The other one is
a little trickier because we have the zipper pull, so I'm going to pull that away. I'm going to use
this hand to pinch these fingers as I feed
it through. Same thing. I'm going to line up so that the tab is lining up with
this side right here. I'm holding my thread tails with my finger so that I don't
get a weird thread nest. I'm going to put my
presser foot down. The clip push is making things
weird, so at this point, I'm going to go ahead and
just take the clip off of here and do my best to
hold everything in place. On this side, with the open one, I just want to make sure
that I'm holding these, that they're pinched
closed so that they stay closed as they go under
as they get sown. Finish strong, and I'm just going to hit
my cutter button. Now our zipper is safe on both ends and it has this
really cute design element. The last step we want
to do here is just trim off the excess on
either side of the tape. If you're using one of
those all-purpose zippers, then you'll probably
have a lot hanging off, but I just want to
use the edge of the zipper and cut straight up. Get any threads
while you're at it. Now our zipper is fully prepped and ready
to be installed. In the next lesson, we'll
install our zipper.
12. Installing the Zipper: In this lesson, we'll
install our zipper. The first step to
install the zipper is to take one exterior piece, and your zipper, and I'm going to take
the exterior piece, and make sure that
it's right side up. I'm going to take my zipper, and put it face down
onto the exterior. I want to center it. I like to have my pole on the left side,
it's just a habit. It doesn't matter,
it truly doesn't. [LAUGHTER] I want to
center the zipper, and then pin it to the top. I want to align the edge tops. I like to just eye
it based on how much space is on either
side of the zipper. But any time you need to
quickly mark or find center, the way to do that is
to fold piece in half. Then you can use a pin
to mark where that was. Then I could do the
same with the zipper, and then align those, and then I know that I'm
right in the zipper there. If you're pinning, you always want to pin perpendicular to
the line that you're sewing. I think traditionally
I always thought that you were supposed
to do it this way. But that can make things
really wavy and bumpy. Let's say you want
to do perpendicular. I'm going to go down, and then come right back up, and that's going to secure that on there, but make it easier. It may keep everything
nice and neat. I do like to use clips, zippers. Don't worry if the
zipper pull is pushing, and pulling, and
making things weird. We'll move that as we're sewing. Now, we're ready to take
this over to the machine. With the help of
our zipper foot, we're going to sew right
along this zipper. Just like with our zipper tabs, I'm going to keep my
needle on this side. But unlike with my zipper tabs, when I was lining up the edge of the fabric with this side, now I'm going to run the edge of my project along this side. This is going to make it so
that I can cruise along here, but the needle still
going to get really close to the zipper
right here like we want. Now, this zipper pole
is really annoying. It's doing a lot, and so I like to hold and pull the zipper
down further along, so that we don't have
to deal with it. Then once we get
further enough along, we can pull in back, and then we don't have to deal
with a zipper at all. I'll take my clip off, I'm going to hold my needle
thread tail right here, and I'm going to get up to where the zipper tape meets the bag. All I have to do is sew. Like the zipper part, this is very easy. You're going to be
amazed at how easy. You're not going to feel
like you're sewing a zipper. All we're doing is watching this along this tab and we're off. I do like to backstitch at
the front of this stitch. Since this hand blocks things, that's why I'm doing
things strangely. I'm going to hit the
backstitch button with this, so that I don't
block the camera. But normally, I
would use this hand. Just going to hold this thread, and I'm going to
do a few stitches, and then I'm going
to hit my back stitch button just to secure
those stitches at the front. [NOISE] Now, I can keep
sewing on as usual. [NOISE] I find that, like I said, I like
to just cruise. If I cruise the edge, and this tends to get close
enough to the zipper, but the zipper foot can nestle up right on
next to the zipper. If you want it to be a
really tight install, you can go closer than this. I just find that this is the least stressful
way to do it, and I still get a really nice
clean results at the end. [NOISE] I'm coming up to
the zipper head again, and so now, I can just pull
him back to the front, and now we don't have
to deal with him again. [NOISE] I got to the end, I'll go ahead, and hit
my back stitch button [NOISE] to secure
those stitches, and I'm going to
hit my cut button. But of course, [NOISE] if
you don't have a cut button, go ahead and lift the
needle and the press foot. Now, we have installed
one half of our zipper. But let's go back to
our cutting table or our working table to pin
the lining piece on top. The next step is to take
one of our lining pieces. We're going to put
right sides together, so this is the right
side of this fabric, and this is now
the right side of this fabric because the other
side has the interfacing. We're going to sandwich the
zipper in between those two. We're going to pin or clip
this fabric to the top, just like we did before. You're welcome to do
this all in one step. So where I pinned, and clipped the zipper
to the exterior, and we did one line of sewing, and now we're coming back, and pinning the
lining on and sewing, you could just make what's
called like a sandwich. Let's say that this
wasn't attached, I could take both these pieces, and just clip the
zipper in there, and sew it in one line. That just makes me nervous. I feel like you can't
really secure the zipper, and so I like to
just do two passes, two really calm passes, and know that I got it, instead of doing
one riskier one. Now, what we're going
to do is we're going to sew down that exact same line. I'm going to take it
to the sewing table, will line up our
zipper foot along this side, and we'll sew down. Now, again, my zipper pull is causing problems up here, so I'm going to reach in, and move the pole gently down, further down so I don't
have to deal with it. Then same deal. [NOISE] All I'm doing is making sure that
everything is smooth and ready to line up along this edge, and
go under the needle. That's all I'm worried about. This time, I am going to backstitch at the
front and back again. [NOISE] I can feel this pull coming up. It's going to reach in there, move it back down
towards the front. Now we don't have
to deal with him. [NOISE] I want to
make a quick note. One of the reasons that
I say that we should or that I encourage
stabilizing the lining, isn't so much the
structure of the bag. Honestly, the fleece
handles all the structure. But if we hadn't had
this piece interfaced, then the lining fabric
would be so much thinner that there'd be a
pretty good chance that by the time I
got to this edge, the lining only would
have stretched, and would've gotten
warped a little bit. That's another bonus of
using the interfacing is it helps stabilize the fabric so it doesn't warp as much. [NOISE] I'm going to backstitch
at the front and back. [NOISE] Let's go back to the work table. Now, if I turn this
right side out, we have our zipper installed
to one half of the bag. You can see that it's
nicely sandwiched in between the exterior
and the lining. It's all nice and neat. Now we just need to take
care of the other side. It's the exact same process. I'm going to take one
of my exterior pieces, and I'm going to
take the zipper, and put it face down. This time, you can just use
the edges of the project. You don't have to worry
about centering the zipper, we're just going to
make sure the edges of the project are aligned. Then just like before, I'm going to pin and clip this
to the top and sew across. [NOISE] This time, my zipper pull is at the end, so I have to deal
with it down there. That's okay. Back to
the sewing table we go. Now you know the drill. I'm going to start at the top, hold my thread tail, and cruise down that zipper. [NOISE] I'm getting
up on my zipper pull, so I'll just go ahead
and pull that back. Just got a nice straight
zipper to deal with. [NOISE] You guessed it, we're going to take our second
lining piece face down, so that it makes
another sandwich, we'll clip it in place, and we'll sew across. Grab my lining, right sides together, should be making a sandwich, so only the wrong
sides are facing out. Just going to center this
on here as best I can, and I've got that pesky zipper
pull at the front again. That's okay. I'll
move him as needed. Move my zipper pull
out of the way. [NOISE] Pull this one to
be everywhere we are. [NOISE] Now, if we open this up, what do we have? But a beautifully installed
zipper, nicely centered. It's got its nice tabs that keep everything neat and cute. Now, the last step of installing the zipper is just
top stitching. Top stitching is a
decorative stitch. It's a stitch that is shown, but it also plays a
function in that see how this fabric is trying
to get all bunched up? We don't want our fabric to be getting caught in our zipper, we don't want it to
be all bunched up. The top stitching is
actually going to help also finish these off
and keep them nice, and neat, and away
from the zipper. I'm going to bring it
over to my machine, and I'm going to top stitch an eighth of an inch
away from the edge. I have my bag spread out here. I have the linings pulled
away from each other, and the exterior is pulled
away from each other. While I'm going down this edge, and doing the top stitching, I just want to make
sure that I'm keeping everything neat
under the needle. We don't need to
backstitch because this is just a decorative stitch that'll get caught in
the seams of the bag. [NOISE] I'm just
going to coast with this edge along here [NOISE]. Now I'll take care
of the other side. I'm going to pull
that lining on, and holding my thread tail, No backstitching needed, [NOISE] top stitch
the other side. [NOISE] Beautiful. Let's go back to the work table to
take a closer look. That big scary zipper, done. [LAUGHTER] That's it. Look, we've got this
beautiful stitching, everything looks so neat, and so when we're
opening up that bag, we've got the beautiful top
stitching on the outside, and the stitching on the inside, and the zipper is
neatly preserved, and the zipper pull
is not going to fly off because we've
got these tabs. My friends, you just
installed this zipper. In the next lesson, we'll
assemble our zipper pouch.
13. Assembling the Zipper Pouch: In this lesson, we'll
assemble our zipper pouch. The first step to assembling our bag is to open the zipper. It won't make sense now, but we're going to be turning the bag from inside
out to right side out, and we're going to be doing it through the zipper opening, so it's just easier if you
remember to open it now. Then what we're
going to do is take the exterior and put them
right sides together. We're going to take
the lining and put those right sides together. What I'm going to do is
I'm going to pin or clip around the entire
perimeter of this. I like to start on the exterior because the exterior
is what really creates the structure
for the bag and the outer form and I want
that to be the nicest. I just pulled them, lined them up, and I can just
go ahead and pin across. Then I like to go to the side
of the bag where the seams meet just to make sure
that those are aligning. Same on the other side. Now at the lining,
we're going to do something a little
bit different. We are going to pin
around the perimeter. However, we need to leave an opening in the bottom of the lining to be able
to turn the bag. If you don't, you
are going to be sad and you're going to have
to rip some stitches out. At this point I like
to align the bottom of the bag. Actually, that's a lie. That's a total lie. I
like to go from the side. The side seams have
already been lined up, and so I like to just keep things neat and keep it aligned. Well mine are lining
up, but let's say that for some reason like these edges were a little skewed like this and
they didn't line up. As long as things are
neat down the side, I don't really care
if it gets messy. This is the lining that's going to be in the bottom of the bag, and so if there's
anywhere where things can get off kilter,
it's in there. But it looks like I
did a pretty good job and things are going to line up. That is nice. Go to the
other side, same thing. Looks like I did a
pretty good job. This side is lining up too, our corners are lining up. The only thing that's
different about this side is I have ADHD and I don't
have good memory. I think most people don't
have great memory anyway. I'm not going to just
remember to leave this open, and so my note to
myself is double pins. Whenever I put two pins right next to each
other like that, I know that I'm telling
myself to stop sewing. Now I'm going to take this
to the sewing table and with the zipper foot setup
exactly as it is, I'm just going to go ahead
and sew around the perimeter. I like to start
here on the lining, go all the way, come around, come back, all the way to my
stopping point. I'm going to start at my pins that are telling me this is
where I can begin my sewing, and just like with the zipper, I'm going to run this edge of the zipper foot down the edge of the fabric for the
entire perimeter. [NOISE] I absolutely like to backstitch at the
beginning and end of this. [NOISE] When we get to a corner, you're going to want to
make sure that you have your sewing machines setup to
stop in the down position. I think all of them do. I'm pretty sure, but I don't
want to speak for everyone, but just make sure because we're going to pivot and we're
going to pivot right now. I have stopped about
three-eighths of an inch away from the edge.
I think that's enough. Now with my needle down, I can just turn the
fabric and keep going. Now, you can see that when
I turn for 90 degrees, my foot edge is not lined up with the
edge of my projects. That means I can probably go one more stitch before pivoting. Needle down, rotate and now
we're right on the money. I can keep going up this side. Now, this is where
you see the beauty of using a zipper foot for this. There is a ton of bulk. You won't be able to see it, but when you're making yours
you'll be able to feel it. The zipper is here, the
zipper tab is right here, but this zipper foot is going to cost right next
to all of it and it's going to let that needle
get just right next to it. [NOISE] I like to go slow for this part
and just be real calm. Just nice and easy
over that seam. Now we're on the exterior. [NOISE] Same thing. I'm just going to stop sewing
before I get to the edge. It looks like I stopped a
stitch early again. Keep going. Just like before I'm at that big intersection but it's okay. My zipper foot is going to
cost by the biggest bulk, and I'm just going
to take it slow as my presser foot gets ready
to go over that hump. We're back into the lining. [NOISE] I'm coming up to my double pins, which means I want
to stop sewing. I'm going to backstitch
before I hit them. [NOISE] We're in
the homestretch. Let's take this back to the work table so that
we can box the corners. In the next lesson, we'll box the corners of the zipper pouch.
14. Boxing the Corners: In this lesson, we'll box the corners of the zipper pouch. To box the corners
you're going to want a ruler and some type
of marking tool. It doesn't have to be a
fabric one because this is going to be on the inside
and it won't be shown, just any tool that
will help you mark and see on the contrast
of your interfacing. What I'm going to
do is I want to mark an inch in
from each corner. I'm going to go ahead and place the one-inch mark from my ruler
on top of each seam line. I'm not doing it from the edge, I'm measuring one inch
from the seam line. That's because it's
the seam line that is creating the shape of
the bag, not the edge. If I were to go off of the edge, if things don't
line up perfectly or if the edges
got a little skew, then the boxes aren't
going to be the same and so you
just want to make sure that you're measuring from the seam line and
not from your edge. I have the one-inch
lined up here on this seam line and I have the one-inch lined up
here on this seam line. I'm just going to
trace around that. [NOISE] If you are anything like me when
I started sewing, this part is going to feel horribly incorrect and
counter-intuitive, but we're going to cut
those squares out. Yes, we are going to
cut through all of these layers through
these beautiful seems that we just sewed, and we're going to cut them out, and so I like to cut again on the inside of that drawn line. [NOISE] This is also in having really
sharp scissors is nice so that these corners
can be nice and sharp. [NOISE] Now this is one of
those steps that's going to look confusing on camera but once
you've got the bag in your hands you're
going to know what to do. [NOISE] I'm going to
pull these apart. See how these are the two
exterior pieces together. I'm going to pull them
apart from each other and I'm going to line up
those seam lines. I'm going to pull to
create a straight line. If you've never done it before, watching it on camera
is going to be like what? That's confusing. When you're holding it,
you're going to get it. We're just pulling these apart
to create a straight line. Now, I have these seams coming together and so I just
like to offset them. So see how this seam
allowance is going this way and this seam
allowance is going that way, that's going to keep
the bulk manageable. I'm just going to pin and clip this straight line
on all corners, [NOISE] and I'm weird with this I like to pin
and clip these. I like to do a clip
in the center and a pin in the corners.
I don't know why. I'll do the other side. Now, the only thing here is
I want to make sure I fold, so I'm going to pull those out, got the seams going
in a different way, but I want to make
sure that this seam is folding the same
way it is here. If I fold these the other ways, if I switched the direction, then this seam on this
side is going to get sewn down going this way and it's going to be the
opposite over there. Again, these are little
tips that they might go over your head the very first time you're going through
this and that's fine. You're still going to
make a beautiful bag, but as you start
to do this more, it's these little things like noticing that the seam is going the same way and that will make a big difference for
those little details. [NOISE] Same thing
for the lining. I'm basically pulling
at each of the corners. [NOISE]. My brain just can't
comprehend how that square becomes a straight
line, but it does. Don't worry, we're ignoring
the opening for now. Let's pin our last one. Oops, see I almost did it. I had this seam
allowance go this way but over here it's
going the other way. It's not going to ruin the bag, [LAUGHTER] but it is just like a nice thing
to have consistent, so the seam lies flat. [NOISE] Now I'm going to take
this to my machine, and for each corner I'm going to sew with my zipper foot running along the
edge of the fabric, and I want to make sure that I backstitch at the
front and back. Let me show you. This
step is not difficult. It's a straight line but what is difficult is all of the bulk. While you are trying to sew
any one of these corners, the rest of the
bag is going to be unruly and annoying
and frustrating, but the good thing is,
is it does not matter. All that matters is what's happening underneath
this needle. If the rest of the bag is all bunched up and
clumped up it doesn't matter as long as
what's happening under the needle is
nice and smooth. [NOISE] I'm just going to get one of these corners
in here and I'm just going to push the rest of the bag down so that is out of my way. [NOISE] I'm just going to
get in here and sew across, backstitching at
the front and back. [NOISE] Do you see how this
now it looks less straight and it
looks more rounded? Again, is what that
like geometry, it's just those seams
and everything and so the main thing is I just want to sew straight across here. [NOISE] I just want to do nice straight even though that didn't follow along the edge, I could feel that I was pushing
the bag straight through. Again, it's one of those
little things like don't let these little
things intimidate you, just get in there and try to sew it and then you'll
see what I mean. This ends up not being a
straight line from the edge, but it is I was able to
sew a straight line. [NOISE] Let me show
you the next one. Get him in there and I push
the rest of the bag down, doesn't matter, we can iron
out any wrinkles that happen. This one is looking
straighter than the last one. [NOISE] The two outside corners or box and now we just need
to do the lining ones. [NOISE] Sorry, I forgot this
hand blocks the camera, so you may have been
blocked there for a second. Now I'm onto my last corner. Same deal, and we go. Backstage at the front [NOISE] and a nice
straight shot across. [NOISE] That's it, the corners are boxed. In the next lesson, we'll turn and finish our zipper pouch.
15. Turn + Finish The Zipper Pouch: In this lesson, we'll turn
and finish our zipper pouch. The bag is done. We have no more sewing to do. Now we just get the fun
task of birthing the bag. That looks like reaching through the lining and pulling
it through the opening. Now, I just wanted
to let you know just for best practices
that in general, before you turn a bag, it's really good to
trim some of the bulk. Where some of these seams and all the interfacing
are lining up, we get a lot of
bulkiness in that seam. When it comes to turn the bag, that can sometimes
jeopardize the cleanness and the neatness of
everything we just sewed. I want to let you know that
when you're bag making you can lessen the bulk by then going in and you
could notch out here. You could cut out
a little triangle to cut down on that bulk. We could come in and
get a little bit closer to this sewn
edge for these. I could come in and
even though we sewed it at about three-eight
of an inch, I could go in and trim it
to an eighth of an inch. That's a little close to the
seam line, but basically, I just wanted to let
you know that you can trim your seams to
make them less bulky. I'll trim this one so
it's equal to the other. But let us birth our bag. I have my point turner here
just in case I need it. We're going to reach
in through the lining, in through the zipper opening, and then I like to grab one of the exterior corners
and pull that through. [NOISE] The first few times you make a bag you're
like, "What the what? You want me to do what?" Then it works and it's amazing. Even though the lining
is not finished yet, I'm going to push it into
the bag just so that we can see how our bag is looking. I'm pushing out these corners. These are box
corners. The bottom. I can go ahead and
pop the zipper, tabs out on both sides, got some threads they
still need to trim. I can push this lining
down in the bag for now. I totally lied to you. I
said we're done sewing, but we still have to close
the lining. Sorry about that. [NOISE] Boom. Did I tell you or
didn't I tell you? That's a zipper
pouch my friends. Look it stands all
nicely on its own. It's very even, the
seams match up nicely. Everything looks happy. [NOISE] Boom, boom, success. The last thing to do is to
just sew up the lining. What I do is I just come and I pull the
lining out and then I tuck the edges in and then I pull a tout because
there's enough of a sewn line already that the rest
will just pop into place. Then pin or clip
along the bottom. You have two options. At this point, I just want
to be done with the project. I'm excited, the bag
is done, it's cute, and so I just take it
to the machine and I do a 16th of an inch topstitch. I guess it's not really a
topstitch. I guess it is. I sew an eighth or a sixteenth of an inch
away from the edge. What that does is it does give
you a seam on the inside. If I open up this lining, you can see where these come
together, it sticks up. I don't care about that. I don't mind if I can
see the sewn seam. It's so much quicker
and like I said, it's the lining in the
bag, I don't care. Your other option is to hand sew and to do a ladder stitch so that you can have an
invisible closure and then you won't be able to tell
how the bag was closed. It's definitely a nicer touch, but I just find that I get impatient once I'm at this point and I'll just sew
also along that edge. I'm just going to
pull it over here. Since I'm going to run the edge of the foot along
the edge of the bag, I actually need to
move my needle because right now if I sew with
it along this edge, the needle is going to sew
right here and I'm going to have a huge seam allowance
in the bottom of the bag. I just want to move my needle
to go to the other side. [NOISE] Then I do like to do just a little bit of back stitching at
the front and back just to make sure that we
really catch the seam. [NOISE] That was the last sewing. I am the worst. I'm so lazy about
trimming threads. It's a very easy task
and yet at the end I find that I have a ton of threads all over
that I need to trim. With that, we can push
the lining back in. I want to give this bag a
little bit of a pressing. I'm going to bring my iron over because it's a little wrinkly, but that my friends
is a completed bag. The last thing I
want to show you is how I go about pressing this. I have two methods. On one is to tuck the bottom seam in
so that you can flatten the bag into just press from the top like you
would anything else. That is a really nice method that allows you to get most
of the bag smoothed out. Like you can see that
already released a lot of the wrinkles. A helpful tool that I've bought
to have on hand is this, I think it's called a ham, like a tailor's ham, and it can handle a lot
of heat and basically it allows you to go
in and be able to really press around this shape. I have found that sometimes if my feasible fleece gets really bunched up
during the process, then ironing on top of
the ham really helps. [NOISE] That is how you can press your bag to
make it look all fresh again. Then I still have some
wrinkles down here. I'll just dry from here. [NOISE] Better. Bang, bang, boom,
finished bag, so cute. If you're a little bit extra, you can take a piece of faux
leather or real leather. If you have an open zipper pull, pull through, now you have
your own little pull. So cute. Endlessly cute. In the next lesson,
I'll show you four ways to modify
the base bag design.
16. Bag Modifications: In this lesson, I'll
show you four ways to modify the base bag design. The first modification
is to adorn the exterior of the bag
with a sewing label, or embroidery beading, anything else you can think of. You'll cut your fabric and
interface it as usual, but before installing
the zipper, you'll place and
attach your adornment. Be mindful of the
seam allowances as well as the areas that
will become the bottom, and sides of the bag. For my sewing label, I like to center it and place it about two-thirds
from the top. Proceed with the bag as usual. The second modification is to
build in interior pockets. For this modification, when
cutting your fabric pieces, you want to cut one
additional lining piece. Fold this lining piece in
half, right sides together, press it, and stitch along the raw edge with a quarter
inch seam allowance. Turn and press the pocket piece, and then topstitch an eighth of an inch away from
the folded edge. Place the pocket piece
topstitching side up onto your lining piece. I like to put mine
in the center, and stitch it in place along the bottom with an eighth
of an inch seam allowance. For the pocket dividers, since the bag has boxed corners, I like to frame the pocket panel an inch in from each side, and then I usually sew a
single division in the center. Make sure to backstitch
at the top of any pocket divisions
to reinforce them, and then proceed with
the bag as usual. The third modification is to
quilt your exterior pieces. For this modification, cut
your exterior pieces and fusible fleece larger on all sides than is
regularly called for. I'd recommend about 12
inches by 10.5 inches. Alternatively, you could
cut one long panel that's 24 inches wide by
10.5 inches tall, that gets cut into
two exterior pieces after being quilted. After interfacing your fabric, use a ruler and marking pen to mark your desired
quilting pattern. I like to do 45-degree diamonds spaced an inch and a half apart. Quilt your design, trim
the exterior pieces down to the correct
10.5 by 8 inch size, and proceed with
the bag as usual. The fourth modification is to do a fully patchworked exterior. For this modification,
start by piecing together your desired
design for the exterior. Either two panels
larger than 10.5 by 8, I recommend about 12
inches by 10.5 inches. Or you could do a single long
panel at 24 inches wide, and 10.5 inches tall that can later be cut into
two exterior pieces. Once your panel or panels
are pieced together, fuse them to the
fleece interfacing, and mark and quilt
your desired design. Trim the panel or
panels down to the correct 10.5 by eight inch size, and proceed with
the bag as usual. In the next lesson,
I'll show you how to troubleshoot common issues.
17. Troubleshooting: In this lesson,
I'll show you how to troubleshoot common issues. Sometimes things go
wrong in sewing. here are some of them and how to go about solving common issues. Sometimes you're sewing along
and your needle breaks. It's terrifying as it happens and then really not so
bad once you calm down. Usually, the sharp part of the needle stays
attached to the thread, making it easy to retrieve and dispose off the broken pieces. Double-check you got everything, load a fresh needle, check the needle position, sew some test stitches,
and be on your way. If you notice you have any
type of uneven stitch, so loose stitches on the top or loose
stitches underneath, it's generally a
tension problem and your tension dial will
need to be adjusted. Your user manual should
have a section about tension with instructions
for various stitch issues. If you get a thread nest
underneath your fabric, try holding your top needle thread tail
at the beginning of a line of sewing to keep it from causing
mischief down below. If that's not the issue, double-check that the bobbin has enough thread and is wound
evenly and smoothly. If your top or bobbin thread
runs out while sewing, simply give the empty spool of the middle finger
for being so rude, mark where you left off on
the project if necessary, refill the bobbin, re-thread the
machine and sew over the last few stitches to secure where you left off
and continue on. If you mis-sew, grab the seam ripper and
rip the stitches out. We all do it, make
peace with it. If you just totally mess up, congrats, you get to go to the fabric store and try again. When general weirdness
is happening, or to avoid general weirdness, I turn to cleaning and
oiling my machine. Again, check your manual. But I pop the plates off
on my machine and use a lint-free brush
to get all the lint and threads that
build up over time, and then I give a few drops of oil in the designated spaces. My usual rundown for
troubleshooting my machine. The equivalent of
restarting your computer and deleting the
extra files is this. One, I always
re-thread the machine, just to be sure. When I'm really doubting myself, I double-check the
manual to make sure I'm not forgetting
something small. Two, I check the bobbin. If it's getting low and a loop sticks out or the tension
is harder to regulate, it could be the bobbin
causing problems. Three, check my thread quality. I have some old cheaper
spools laying around. If I'm suspicious
of the quality, I'll throw my best thread on to see if the thread
was the culprit. Cheap thread can cause breakage issues and
tension issues. Four is a fresh needle. An old needle can be barbed and catch on all sorts of things or can be dull and
cause issues when trying to pass through
the layers of fabric. I try to change my needle every few small projects or
after each large project. Five is to clean and oil
as described before. Six, if the above doesn't help, I turn to YouTube
and start looking for videos pertaining
to my model. Seven, I'll call a local
cloth shop to see if they do repair consultations or to
see what advice they offer. It helps if the shops sells the type of machine
you're working with, though it isn't always required. In the next lesson, I'll show you how to share your project.
18. Share Your Project: In this lesson, I'll show you
how to share your project. Way to go on finishing your bag. If you'd like to show it off, and I certainly hope you will, take a picture with
your phone or camera and send the picture to
your computer via email, Bluetooth, or memory card. From the Projects and
Resources tab of this class, head to the right
sidebar and click the green "Create Project"
button. Listen closely. You'll want to upload
your image here twice. Once up here to the
cover uploader, which gives a nice preview in the project gallery
when people are scrolling, and again, by clicking down into the body of the
project and uploading the photo here so that when
people click on your project, they can see the whole photo and not just the cropped cover. After that, pat
yourself on the back, check out other people's
bags if you want, and start thinking about
what you want to make next.
19. Ahhh!: [MUSIC] You finish your first
sewing project. It has a zipper in it, bing, bong, bing. I'm just happy for you
because I remember finishing my first bag and how amazed I was and how proud
of myself I was, and I can't wait for the first
time that you tell someone that the gift they're holding in their hands was made by you. I'm telling you, they're going to be impressed by that zipper, and you can take
all the glory while knowing that it really
wasn't that hard, and you can make a million
more if you wanted to. Thank you for trusting me with your first separate
sewing project. If you enjoyed this course, it would mean the world to me if you left a written review, and don't forget to upload a picture to the
project gallery, so that we can all marvel
at your beautiful work. If you'd like to hear
our future classes, I published here on
Skillshare, give me a follow. Until next time. [MUSIC]