June 24, 2019

DIY Zippered Makeup Bag in 7 Steps

I’ll be the first to tell you that organization is just not my gift. However, I made this DIY zippered makeup bag in 7 steps to organize at least a very small part of my life. I love the final outcome!

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Easy Makeup Organization

I’ve adapted this post from my original blog, Designers Sweet Spot. Enjoy!

I confess that organizing is not my strong suit. I should have a cute little way of organizing all of my personal items around the house, but I don’t. It should be easy for me since I am the only female member of this household. However, the organization seems to be dead last on my priority list.

The last cosmetic bag I bought was for our honeymoon in 1996. I never saw the real need for one, and even if I thought it would be helpful, I couldn’t find one I liked. I recently realized I needed to organize at least this one aspect of my life and decided to take matters into my own hands by creating this DIY makeup bag!

Supplies Needed

I recently received an email from Spoonflower with an offer for a FREE fabric sample. I couldn’t pass it up! After much debate, I chose this beautiful blue pattern. It was hard to narrow it down to my favorite as they have so many beautiful options to choose from! I could spend a lot of money if I wasn’t using self-control.

My 8″ square sample came printed on Eco Canvas, which is a great sturdy fabric without being too stiff or heavy. It was the perfect size for an accent piece on my next sewing project.

For this makeup bag I used:

8″ square piece of fabric for your focal point (You could even use scrap fabric for this project, which I love!)
1/4 yard of contrasting fabric
9″ zipper in color of choice (I used gray.)
sewing machine and thread
scissors
iron
wooden ruler (optional)

Makeup Bag Pattern

This project was incredibly simple and took me less than 30 minutes to make. It’s easy enough that even the beginner sewer could have success with my easy step by step bag tutorial.

1. Trim away selvages on contrasting fabric. Cut a piece 9″ wide and 13″ long.

2. Using both the fabric sample and the contrasting fabric, line up top edges with the right sides together. Use the sewing machine to baste with 1/2″ seam allowance for zipper application. Shorten the zipper by 1/2″ with several rows of small stitches 1/2″ from the bottom zipper stop. Trim away excess. (While zippers are sold in 7″ and 9″ lengths, this makeup bag is 8″ wide. Because of this, you will have to shorten the zipper slightly.)

Note: I did not baste my zipper. I simply finished the top edge and topstitched it to the zipper on the right side. You can do this as well if you are comfortable with zipper applications.

3. Press open the basted seam. Install zipper with a zipper foot directly on top of the seam allowance, lining up zipper teeth to the pressed basted seam. (You will later remove basted stitches to reveal the zipper).

4. Sew bottom edges together, making a pouch.

5. Sew side seams together, folding the fabric to show 2″ of the contrasting cloth of the exterior pieces at the top edge. (Zipper should be 2″ down from the top edge on the right side.) Be careful to sew directly on the printed part of the fabric sample so the white selvage won’t show from the right side of the bag after it’s turned. Take time to reinforce top edges with backstitching and also reinforce ends of the zipper. Unfortunately, my zipper-stop didn’t exactly match up as I was too hasty during this step. It’s only 1/8″ off, so I have some broken stitches. However, it isn’t noticeable from the right side of the finished bag so I didn’t see it necessary to redo this step.

6. Trim corners and seam allowance as needed to turn bag right side out. Unzip the zipper and rip out the basting stitches to turn the bag to the right side. Use either the edge of a wooden ruler or a straight pin to get nice pointed corners on your zipper pouch.

7. Finally, press the bag flat with a warm iron.

Your DIY zippered makeup bag is finally complete and ready to be put to use! Happy organizing!

While I love that this was a practically free project, that it’s so adorable and the bag is the perfect size for all my makeup, those aren’t even the best parts. My favorite part about my new makeup bag is that I can simply throw it in the wash when it gets dirty, which is bound to happen sooner rather than later.