Selvage Purse with Secret Pocket Tutorial

Selvage Zipper Purse with secret bottom pocket. Free Sewing Tutorial.

First I made this pattern.  ..you can adjust it to suit your needs..

Cut two pieces of lightweight batting to sew your selvages on to...this will be the front and back of purse..

Sew your selvages on the two pieces..

Trim off excess fabric to the shape of the batting..

Cut two pieces of lining the same size as the front and back for the bottom pocket lining..

Sew the zipper in between the lining and front / back pieces, so that the zipper tape in enclosed between the pieces....you may like to use a zipper foot or hand sew the zipper in

It should look like this with the zipper tape enclosed...hand sew the ends in together a little so that there is no gap.....see photo below...open up flat and press..

Lay two pieces of lining fabric down wrong sides in together then lay purse top on top of lining and cut out the lining to be the same size and shape..

Stitch all the pieces together around the outside... you can now see the bottom pockets....trim away any excess fabric ....

Cut a 2" binding on the bias..and press in half length ways....
Carefully sew binding around the purse shape..

Most know how to join binding together...this is how I like to do it and it works perfectly every time..
Leave a few inches of binding free at the beginning and at the end....Overlap one end over the other by the width of the binding, in this case it will be 2 inches...

Join binding on the diagonal and trim away excess fabric leaving a 1/4 inch seam. press seam open and finish off sewing on binding.....perfect!

I found this to be the trickiest part to do....Centre the zipper on the purse top and hand sew the zipper in at the top....have the zipper teeth just below the top of the binding for a nice finish..
It will be a bit fiddly at first, but you will find your own easy way of doing it...

Fold purse in half with the inside facing out...carefully top stitch the sides together on both sides up to the zipper...

Turn purse through to the right side and gently poke out the bottom corners..
I attached a fancy bead to the zipper

I hope you can understand the instructions...
My zippers were only 5" and a bit small, but that's all I had on hand...they could be a bit bigger..
I had to work this out from scratch...but I'm happy with how it turned out... Enjoy...