3 Ring Binder Zippered Pouch Tutorial

Wow! Long time no see!  I'm going to make a better effort at posting once and a while.  I've been very active on Instagram as of late and I find the instant feedback very encouraging as well as enlightening.  I have a better feel about what people are interested in.

So without further ado. For Valentine's Day, I wanted to do something more personal and useful for my children.  They always love things I sew so I thought, a binder pencil pouch filled with a few goodies would be a fun treat for them.  When I posted the pouches on Facebook and Instagram, instant feedback! Someone asked me if there was a pattern or a tutorial and I decided I'd try to make a tutorial for these fun things.  I was so excited thinking I had a clever idea so I search Etsy and alas, a bunch of handmade binder listings. Go figure! Haha.  So, this is not an original idea by any means but I did figure this out on my own and I'm sure there is either some tweaking to be done or maybe even a simpler way to make them but this works for me and I hope it works for you too.

List of Supplies of course included thread and a sewing machine but you will also need:

• 9" zipper
• 3 grommet sets 
• hammer and setting tool for your grommets
• exterior fabric, interior fabric and 1 fusible interfacing cut to size 12" x 19" each
• a couple of scraps about 2" x 5"
• Optional 3 ring binder to check your grommet placings

First step is to fuse the interfacing to the exterior piece of fabric:

Take your scrap fabrics and attach them to either end of your zipper to make it long enough to go across the 12" side of the rectangles. Cut to size to make sure it's at least 12" long.

Change your sewing foot to a zipper foot, we will sew the zipper to the fabric now.

Line the zipper up face down to one side of the exterior fabric and sew.

Next step is to line up the interior fabric. I like to sew from the exterior side to see the first sewing line so I do not sew over the zipper by accident.

At this point, I like the press the fabric back to have a nice crisp line near the zipper.

Fold up the exterior fabric so the bottom aligns to the top of the zipper, you'll sew across but make sure the interior fabric is not anywhere near where you are sewing.

in this picture I folded the exterior fabric up to meet the zipper, but then I flip it so the zipper is facing up when I sew just to ensure that I do not sew over the zipper and ruin my needle.

Now it's time to sew the interior, again, flip this up so the interior fabrics are right sides together and the zipper is pretty much sandwiched between all the fabrics. (I really don't know how to explain this but hopefully the pictures will do the explaining)

Once you sew the interior fabric to the zipper, it's time to open the zipper and pull the fabrics through so you can press everything flat.  As you notice, the sides still need to be sewn shut.  I like to press the zipper down from the top about 1"  I press so there is nice crisp crease that I'll be able to see once I turn the fabrics inside out.

turn the fabric so the interior fabric is facing out.

press again, notice the crease I made earlier is still there!

 Trim up the sides so you don't have all these loose scraggled threads.

Once you have trimmed the sides it's time to sew them closed. Make sure you are catching all the fabrics (and make sure to leave the zipper open or you wont be able to turn this correctly!)

I used a 1/4" seam on either side.

 Both sides are now sewn, the zipper is open and I'm going to turn this right side out.

 Press flat, we will do some top stitching now to reinforce the seams. The top stitching will also give you the opportunity to hide your raw edges on the inside.

You will top stitch around the entire pouch and on the one side where the grommets will be placed, I do multiple lines of stitches to add a little form to the pouch. I do about 1 inch of matchstick sewn lines.

about 1 inch of matchstick lines on the side where the grommets will be place.

Time to add the grommets. I have the tools for my grommets but I don't have the fabric hole puncher so I use my super sharp scissors.  Line up the grommets so they'll fit perfectly on the 3 ring binder loops.  I double check my placement with a binder that I have on hand.  But for tutorial purposes I measured the placement (but I highly recommend double checking! You don't want to get this far and then have the grommets not be place properly)

Grommets were placed at 1" then  5 1/4" and finally 9 1/2"  I pressed the grommet into the fabric to form an indent, outlined with my Frixion pen and snipped away at the circle.

 Place on side of the grommet into the hole.

 Flip and fit the other piece, and hammer flat.

a really nifty tool!

 The grommet is now set, repeat for the other 2.

 And that's it! Sit back and admire your lovely work.

I hope this tutorial was helpful! Please let me know if I need to tweak anything.  If you use my tutorial I would love a link back! You can find me on instagram @quatapochjewel or facebook at: www.facebook.com/quatapoch  Tag me! and tag #quatapochtutorials