Quick Change Coin Purse

Here are some basic instructions in case you'd like to make a Quick Change Coin Purse of your very own.  Because this is a not-tutorial tutorial I am assuming you know how to sew a binding, box corners, and sew a zipper.

Here's what supplies you'll need to make this little (about 3.5 inches tall and 5 inches wide) coin purse:

- two 6 x 8 pieces of fabric for the outside and inside or a little bigger if you are more comfortable with a little wiggle room outside your pattern.
- 6 x 8 piece (or a little bigger) of low loft batting or fusible fleece (I used a Warm and Natural scrap)
- about 30 inches of extra wide double fold bias tape (you'll have a little left over)
- a zipper at least 8 inches long including tails (I use a 12 inch and trim it)
- scissors
- matching thread (it is important that your thread matches your bias tape, you may want to use a different thread for your quilting)
- hand sewing needle

I used some Ann Kelle Remix fabric for the outside and Sandi Henderson Henna Garden for the inside.

You can simply draw your own oval pattern, that is 6 x 8 inches.  Just make sure it's symmetrical.  Cut the oval shape from your three fabrics; the front, back and batting.

If you are lazy like me, you'll pin them all together and cut them all at once.  The binding will cover up all your mistakes.

So after cutting you'll need to make a little quilt sandwich, if you haven't already.  You'll want your front and back fabrics to sandwich the batting, making sure that both right sides are showing.

Here is a picture of my "sandwich"

Next step is quilting your sandwich.  I just used my regular sewing machine foot (with a slightly longer stitch length) and did some improvisational stitching that I thought would highlight the design of my fabric.  

I think the only thing to note here is that it will be helpful if you at least run some stitches about 1/8 of an inch around the perimeter if your quilting doesn't come close to the edge like mine, or if your quilting is less dense.  This will just help hold your sandwich together and make it easier to bind.

If you are like me, you'll just quilt your sandwich without basting or pinning and it might shift a little.  Not to worry, just trim your oval mini quilt when you are done, taking care to keep it as symmetrical as you can.  Using fusible fleece, you'd have much less, if any, shifting - but either works well.

Next, you'll want to unfold your double fold bias tape.  What we are after here is a single fold, so you'll need to untuck both of the inner folds and iron your new single fold bias tape.  Hopefully my pictures make more sense than my words. 

Attach your binding as you would a quilt.  To best hide the binding seam, start sewing in the middle of one of the long sides of your oval.  Line up your binding so that the folded edge is towards the center of your mini quilt and the raw edges are lined up with the edge.  Sew your binding just under a 1/4 inch in from the edge.

If you started sewing your binding in the center of the long side, there is really no need to do any sort of sewn joining of the binding.  You can simply fold in/under one side of your binding.

Then tuck in the other end.

And sew over the seam.  As long as you do this very near to the center of the long side of the oval, it will get hidden when you box the corners.

Ta-Da!  Your quilted oval with binding attached.

I wanted a thin look to my binding so I trimmed a little of the seam allowance after sewing, but this is purely personal preference.

Next step, fold your binding over to the back side and hand stitch in place. It doesn't have to be too neat.  The zipper is going to cover up your marvelous handiwork anyway.

After you have your binding all stitched, fold your mini quilt oval in half, matching the short ends.

Hand sew or machine stitch about 1.5 inches from the bottom up on both sides of your half circle.  Back stitch generously at the top.  It's important to note that your stitches will likely show on the other side when turned inside out.  I highly recommend using matching thread for this step.

I chose to machine stitch.  If you do, try to get as close to the edge as possible.  This is important, if you don't sew VERY close to the edge your pouch won't stay open when turned.

So here's what you have so far.

The next to pictures are my attempt at showing you how to box the corners of the coin purse.  Basically you set the pouch on end, and fold in the sides to make a flat triangle.

Your flattened triangle.

Up close.

Stitch about 5/8 inches from the point.  Back stitch at both ends and over the middle seam for strength.

And voila!  Do the same for the other side of your pouch.  Almost done!
You could trim these corners if you wanted, but I chose to leave them as is so the inside of my pouch didn't have any raw edges.  Personal preference!

This is the trickiest part, but if you've sewn zippers before (and this not-tutorial assumes you have), it shouldn't be too bad.

I like to use a zipper longer than I need.  I lay it over the pouch, teeth down, zipper pull completely out of the way (so it will be hanging below where you start or end your sewing and happily out of the way).  

I pin one side and sew from opening to opening.  I then unzip the zipper, stopping the pull right where I want it to lay when my pouch is unzipped.  I pin the other side and again sew the zipper in place.

For this pouch I simply stitched in the ditch of my quilt binding to hide the zipper stitches.  You could hand sew the zipper in like the vintage version, being careful to not sew through the front of your pouch.
After you sew in the zipper, trim the ends and turn your pouch right side out.

Here's a shot of the inside.