Zipped Compartment Bag - Free sewing patterns

Sewing kit in a pickle? Keep things simple with this pouch, filled with individual compartments for embroidery scissors, threads, fabric scraps, and any other odds and ends you can squeeze inside. It would also make a practical purse for make-up, just switch the inner pieces for a wipeable waxed fabric.

Essentials

Cotton, assorted fat quarters
Fabric glue
Lightweight 2oz quilt wadding
Zip, 27cm

1 Download and print the templates. Cut two pieces of fabric for the top tabs, 4cm x 8cm. Fold in 5mm on each short edge and glue. Fold in half, right sides together, and match the hemmed edges, before stitching down both sides. Turn right sides out and place these mini sleeves over the tabs at each end of a 27cm zip, then glue or topstitch in place.

2 Using the bag template, cut two pieces each for the outer panels, linings and wadding. With right side facing, zig zag stitch the outers to the wadding pieces. Place one padded outer and one lining right sides together, sandwiching the whole zip centrally between the layers on the top edge, with the right side of the teeth facing the outer. Sew in place, leaving 1cm unsewn at each end of the fabric and turn out. Attach the other side of the zip between the remaining outer and lining in the same way.

3 Open the zip and fold the fabrics so that both outers are right sides together, and the lining is out of the way. Sew down the side seams and along the bottom, before flattening the base and stitching across the corners to make a box bottom. Tuck the zip ends through the small gaps left between the top and side seams of the bag.

4 For one pocket, cut two pieces of fabric, 25cm x 35cm, then place right sides together and sew along both short edges. Turn right side out, press and topstitch the seams. Fold in half, matching the seams to make a pocket. Repeat to make a second pocket using the same, or different, fabrics. Lay the bag linings right sides together, and insert the folded pockets between them, ensuring that the top edges sit 1cm below the zip and the bottom edges will be free of the bottom lining seam allowance.

5 Pin the sides of the pockets between the sides of the lining and sew. Join the bottom edges of the lining together, leaving a 10cm gap in the centre of the seam. Flatten the base and stitch across the corners to make a box bottom, then turn the entire bag right sides out through the gap. Fold in the raw edges of the gap and topstitch 1mm from the folded edge to close. Push the lining and pockets back inside the bag outer.