Becca Bags Zippered Pouches

When a local quilt shop offered a class on the Becca Bags, I signed up immediately.  I was curious about Joan Hawley's one-zip technique where you only use one side of the zipper tape and feed it back through the zipper pull.

Becca Bags by Paige Alexander made with Cotton + Steel fabrics

And with this method, it eliminates having to cover the zipper ends resulting in a very neat zip pouch. See how the bags stand open so well with gussets sewn into the bottom of both bags.

Dreamy Fusible, a high loft fusible fleece, was sandwiched between the two layers.  The pattern calls for topstitching only at the top of the bag near the zipper, but I like the look, especially from the inside of the bag, when it is quilted.  I quickly added some straight line quilting using the walking foot.

Becca Bags made using the one-zip technique

I added a few lines of quilting on top section of the larger bag, but on the smaller bag, I quilted between the arrows all the way down.

You can see the zipper pull on the smaller bag is a natural color.  I had to rob it from another zipper. As the pattern warns, you must use the same brand of zipper tape and tabs for them to be interchangeable.  I had several Coats & Clark's all purpose polyester zippers on hand and used them, but YKK zipper tabs are sold in bulk, where you can color coordinate the zipper tape and tabs.

Becca Bags with quilting

Below is another picture of the other side.  You can see here where the grab tab was made from a section of the zipper tape.  I used grosgrain ribbon on hand for the zipper pull.

Becca Bag

As I mentioned before in this blog post and this one too, I am headed to Sewtopia Atlanta soon and made these bags for the blind swap.  I fussy cut the the top section to include South Carolina, my home state and Georgia, where Sewtopia will take place.

Becca Bag with fussy cutting to include South Carolina and Georgia

I can see making more Becca bags in the future and want to try using denim in place of fleece like Nicole of Mama Love Quilts just did in her zipperd pouch.

Zippered Pouch Stats:

• Finished sizes:  4" x 6" small zip pouch and 6" x 8" large zip pouch
• Pattern:  Becca Bags by Joan Hawley of Lazy Girl Designs
• Zipper: 22" Coats & Clarks mfg. by Talon (older)  
• Fabrics: All Cotton + Steel - Metallic Arrows in Navy by Melody Miller; Diningcar in Coral, State Words in Teal, and Palm Springs in Teal by Alexia Marcelle Abegg
• Fusible Fleece: Dreamy Fusible, high loft polyester
• Thread: Aurifil and Mettler

And, by the way, as attendees of Sewtopia, we will be touring the design studios of Cotton + Steel. How exciting is that?  I found a great post here by Apartment Therapy that gives a sneak peak into their studio.

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Celtic Thistle Stitches hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whoop, There It Is! and Show Off Saturday.