TUTORIAL; how to sew a zipper pocket into the lining of a purse

This is the way I put zipper pockets in my bags; this method can be used for interior or exterior pockets and with zippers of any length.

 **I have recently seen the zippers temporarily attached with scotch tape, so I will try that method today and add my results as a amendment to this tutorial.

This TUTORIAL is done using the following ingredients:
-a 8" YKK zipper (my preferred brand)
-bag lining fabric
-8" by 12" pocket lining fabric
-small scissors
-rotary cutter (scissors are fine too)
-double-sided tape or glue stick (or neither if you do it my way)
-sewing machine
-thread
-zipper foot

for most of my medium bags, I use an 8" zipper. Some tutorials I've seen say to use 2 pieces for the pocket, but I find one long piece of fabric double the length of the pocket folded in half, is much stronger for the abuse it will take at the bottom of the pocket. this piece of red fabric is 8" by 12", so the finished pocket will be 8" by 6" minus seams.
Lay your red pocket right side down onto the lining which is right side up, so right sides together!!!

also, IF your pocket has a pattern with an up/down direction, then place the pocket with the bottom of your pocket print at the top of the lining.

I then make a line 1" from the top of the pocket, and stop a 1/2" before I get to the side of the pocket.

the line should look this and you would use the same formula not matter long of a zipper you happened to be using.

I then make a line parallel to this line, I made this one 3/4" away, but I sometimes make it just 1/2" for a neater look as less of the zipper will show.

join the ends and make a line down the centre (your future cut line), but don't go all the way to the ends, rather, stop short and add this pretty triangle 

sew on the outside box lines; I sew at a 2.4 stitch length, pivoting carefully at the corners and set your machine to keep the needle DOWN when it stops, otherwise it will look sloppy.

sew to the corner

lift the presser foot, pivot the fabric, all done with the needle in the down position

lower the presser foot again and continue. If you had set it to 2.4 Stitch length and 3/4 width, then it should be exactly 4 stitches from corner to corner...

pivot again at the next corner

this will be your finished box

this will be your finished box

carefully cut by scissors or rotary along the centre line ONLY, BUT do not snip the lines you just sewed; if you do, don't freak out, but do sew them again.

this is how the long cut should look, notice it does NOT go right to the end!!

now CAREFULLY snip into the corners, as close as you can, without snipping the corner stitches

this is what it should now look like; I pulled the triangles up a bit, so you could see better

now put the red pocket through the hole you just sewed and it should look like this...

the view from the underside/back

this is the trickiest part; you need to smooth out this area in preparation for sewing the zipper to it. This is where you make it look sloppy or not. I use my fingers and the iron as well to get nice corners.

iron from the top first as this is the side you'll be seeing, but also iron the back to keep it under control.

I put a lot of effort into getting this corner pointy, pulling on the red from the bottom can also help while ironing the top. Fiddle around until it looks good to you.

this looks ready for the zipper; sometimes, like this pocket, I hide the pocket lining, other times, I let the lining peek through a bit adding visual interest... just a preference either way :)

the next step involves sticking the zipper to the pocket while you sew. I don't actually do this anymore and just skip it (holding in place while I sew), but I used to use adhesive tape (you can even use a glue stick).

**I have recently seen a tutorial using scotch tape to hold in place, so I will be trying this method ASAP!

sew the end with the pull closed to keep it together as you'll need to have the zipper 1/2 open to do the next part

on the inside of the pocket, iron the double-sided tape, sticky side down to the edges of the hole

do this on all sides, remove the backing and you should be left with a sticky border around the hole

again, carefully iron the zipper to the sticky tape residue holding it for sewing.

I like to line up this end with the zipper stop, for 2 reasons:

1. so I don't sew over this metal breaking my needle!

2. it just looks neater and the zipper won't disappear behind the lining.

don't forget to iron the bottom to really get it stuck there

you can even pin it and sew it... this is purely preference.

I am right-handed, so I put the zipper pull on the left of all my zippers, as that makes it more comfortable to open. Ned Flanders would probably want it the other way 

it should look like this after ironing and setting in place, keep the zipper 1/2 open, this keeps the pull out of the way

Use your zipper foot for this next part.

I start sewing on the long bottom edge, so my starting point won't be seen as you will want to go over this point a few times. Don't try to start at a corner, it will not look as pretty.

I top-stitch this with a stitch length of 3.0 or 3.2 with coordinating thread. Longer stitching looks more professional.

Sometimes, I even go around the box twice, a 1/4" around the outside of this box. again, your preference

getting by the zipper foot is a little tricky.

Simultaneously, life the presser foot and push and pull the zipper pull under your foot, keeping the needle in the fabric. You MUST have your machine set to having the needle in the down position for this; I actually ONLY sew this way and it makes for smoother stitches when pivoting, turning etc.

 just slide it under and right by

notice the needle is still in the DOWN position, that way there is no shifting of the fabric underneath

again, pivot at the corners carefully

this should be how it looks

*this is a little sloppy for my square as I don't usually use fusible tape, but I did for this tutorial

now, cut the zipper ends off in line with the pocket edges

now fold over the bottom part of the pocket to the top and line them up into a neat rectangle

you are going to sew or serge around the three sides closing the pocket.  Start in the top right corner as pictured here.

DO NOT sew the lining (blue) to the pocket (red), just sew the pocket (red) together, keeping the lining (blue) out of the way as you pivot.

you can pin it if you want, I don't... I just pinned here to show you 

serging it closed

sew all around the 3 open edges of the pocket

you don't need to sew this bottom edge as it's already closed by the folded over fabric.

this is what the back will look like when the sides are sewn or serged 

your new pocket!!!

Now, you can use your bag lining as your pattern suggests.