A Sewing Tutorial: The Reusable Ziplock bag

I LOVE ziplock bags.  

I could use them for virtually everything.  

Especially handy for packing.

This tutorial is about a year + coming.  

I've been wanting to make these for a long time.

Actually, this is a little different than my original idea.

I may bust out the other version soon.  :)

Anyway, this is the cutsie fabric version.

To make your own, just follow along.

You'll need:

 2 pieces of fabric 12.5" X 11.5"

once piece of the nice thick clear vinyl about 11" X 11.5"

one zipper at least 12" long

First, cut your vinyl across the 11" side down 1.5"

This should leave you with a piece 11" X 1.5" and one 11" X 10"

Does that make sense?

Now you're ready to sew on your zipper.  

To sew with vinyl you will need a layer of tissue paper between the vinyl and feed dogs of your machine.

So lay down a piece of tissue paper, then your skinny strip of vinyl and then your zipper lining up with the long edge of the vinyl, face down.

See above picture.

Sew.

Now layer a piece of tissue again with your 11X10 piece on top.  

Flip over your zipper so the opposite edge is lined up with the 11" side, facing down.

Be careful to line up the other edges with the piece already sewn.

After sewing both down, pull off your tissue.

Now your vinyl piece should have a zipper along the top middle.

Now to make the next step easier, I chose to center the vinyl on top of the fabric and sew down.

To do this you will want to place your outside fabric down, wrong side up.  

Then place your inside fabric right side up. 

The vinyl will go down with the zipper pull to the outside, zipper seams on the inside.

Also, note, I wanted to 'press' my zipper seams to help them lie flat.  

I did this by covering the vinyl and seams with a thick cloth and pressed a hot iron on them.

This will soften up the vinyl temporarily, but will not burn it.

**Before you sew the vinyl piece down, be sure to pull your zipper pull to the inside of where you will sew.  See below.

Now I folded and hemmed the sides over the edges of the vinyl.

Then the same with the top and bottom.

This cute little ziplock bag matches a weekend bag I made.  

Tutorial to come soon!

We used this set for Kalla's things when she went to camp this summer.

Oh and sorry for the terrible editing above...it kinda hurts my eyes now, but didn't look as bad on my little net book I was working on.  

You get the idea.  :)