3 Beautiful Bags. Lisa Lam

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      To gauge the width of your pocket fabric decide how wide you

       want your pocket to be and add two lots of seam allowance. The

       pocket fabric width should always be at least 8cm (31/8in) longer

       than your zip.

      To gauge the height of your pocket fabric decide how high you

       want your pocket to be (measuring from the zip itself to the bottom

       edge of the pocket) and add 5cm (2in).

      All seam allowances are 1cm (3/8in) unless stated otherwise.

      Make up your pockets and stitch them to your bag fabric BEFORE

       constructing your bags.

      a

      Fig a Trim the zip to size from the zip pull end. Ensure that

       you leave a 2cm (3/4in) clearance to the side of your cut for the

       zip side seam allowance.

      The beauty of nylon …

      I prefer nylon zips because you

       can safely cut them and sew

       through them without hurting

       your scissors or sewing machine.

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      Stitch the zip pull ends together – take a hand-

       sewing needle and hand stitch the zip pull ends

      together. See Fig b.

      Mark and make a hole for the zip – take your

       zip and measure the length of the zip teeth (not

      the length of the zip itself). Now draw a rectangle

       as wide as your zip teeth by 1cm (3/8in) high onto

       the WS centre of one of the pocket fabric pieces.

       This rectangle will be the hole for your zip and it

       needs to be drawn at least 5cm (2in) down from the

       top edge of your pocket fabric. Finally, in the middle