Making a Fat Quarter Craft/Project bag, part 3

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Step 4
Top stitch the zipper.

You can, if desired, at this point stop and iron the lining/zipper tape edge.. but don't press the outer fabric. It is a PITA if you only have a full size iron, but not too bad if you have one of those mini irons used for quilting. It

Starting once again at the bottom of the zipper, top stitch the zipper.

I like to have a folded edge that hides the zipper teeth--it's a style-- but you could just top stitch the fabric an leave the teeth exposed.

If you've used a fancy zipper, (a heavy weight one, or one with jewels, or fancy teeth, leaving the teeth exposed is a very attractive finish--but for a plain zipper, a placket is nice. (and its harder to cut fancy zippers to length... and working with an 18 inch zipper (vs a 22 inch one) makes it harder to sew the project.

I used a plain vanilla zipper, so I made a folded edge, (and 'finger pressed' it in place) –you could finger press, (which is exactly what it sounds like.. you press the fabric with pressure from you finger!), or spend some time pressing with a cool iron (you don't want to have an iron touch the zipper teeth, they will melt and the zipper won't work!) or pin the fold in place.

This detail is one that shows, so take your time..

Top stitch both sides of the zipper--and again, start from bottom of zipper, and sew to top.

OK, you're half way done, and the hardest part is finished!

At this point, you'll want to zip up the zipper, and trim the extra length off..

To do this, use a wide zig zag stitch (or hand stitch a bar over zipper near to where you want to trim it.)

See how I first trimmed the zipper, an then realized the END of the zipper was still too long, and I added a second bar.. (in the next step, the first bar tack on the zipper will be trimmed off.)

You should 'close' the top of the zipper the same way.. this image shows the zipper tacked (and the seam sewn, and trimmed.. I forgot to take an image of the sewing the top of the zipper closed at the time I did it.

Just be careful not to break the sewing needle on the built in metal stops at the top of the zipper. And then un zip the zipper about half way. I can't say this often enough.. it's a real PITA if you continue working on the project with the zipper completely zipped.

Now you have a tube. The top of tube and the bottom of tube are still open--but not for long. and the hardest part is done.. the rest is easy compared to putting in the zipper. You should also notice, the tube is inside out.. (the solid green lining is visible, the water color outer fabric is inside.)

Back to first part of project
Link to part 2
Link to part 4(Not active now)