Little Things: Zippered Coin Purses

While we were in France, I lost a lovely little red velvet beaded coin purse that I must have purchased at The Holiday Folk Fair in Milwaukee years ago.  I am please that the Fair will go on this year in November and I might be able to find another one -- or not.

In the meantime, I thought I would try to make one or two or three or four:

I stumbled across this little video and decided to give it a go.   I have 4 7-inch zippers left over from making bags during the pandemic, so ...

In my wanderings through St. Vinnie's this week, I found this petite little velvet patchwork jacket for $5 -- much too small for me to wear, but just fine if I want to re-use the material for other things.  And it has a little sparkle, too!

 

Here are the two velvet pouches. 

I followed the direction in the video above.  She cut the fabric 4 x 6 inches, which makes the rectangular pouch.  Turns out, that's a little bigger than I wanted or needed, so I lopped off an inch (cut fabric 4 x 5 inches instead) and made the smaller pouch.

I made 3 of them to start with, following the video step-by-step.  Then I decided to make the 4th.  I had one more zipper and thought I could do it without the video -- Ha!  I made 2 mistakes she warns about in the video: Not only did I forget to open the zipper before I sewed the lining, I also lopped off the zipper head!   A little unsewing and a few swear words got the zipper head re-attached, so I didn't have to start all over (or go out and buy a new zipper)!

No fancy beading on these, but I am quite happy with the results.

 

Leafy lining.  Always easier to see what you've got if the lining is light in color.

That said, the velvet pouches needed a little more glitz. Thus the starry night fabric for the lining.

Over all, these were astonishingly easy to make -- esp. when you consider they all have zippers.   I may be making more some day.  Also a good way to use up some scraps -- and the fabric stash is piling up again!

 

Jenny Doan from Missouri Quilt Co. explains the process similarly, but she adds an extra piece of fabric to start and stop the zipper.  It doesn't seem to be necessary in the first video above -- maybe because the coin pouches are so small?  I can see where the zipper stop would be necessary and helpful in a larger pouch.