I wanted to make a bag/pouch that looked like a Milano cookie for my friend's birthday.

He eats lots of Milano cookies for breakfast at work.

The fabric that I used for the cookie part is a sort of water-repellant, khaki-colored canvas that I took off of an old coat from GoodWill. Then I used a black zipper that acts as the seam and opening for the bag and also looks like the thin line of frosting on a Milano cookie.

Parts List:

An old coat that you don't mind destroying or some sort of off-white to tan colored fabric
A coat zipper that is about 28" long
Pins
Paper
Sewing machine with zipper foot

Step 1: Make Pattern

I wanted the size of the oval shaped bag to be determined by the length of the zipper that I had so that I didn't have to shorten the zipper.

I pined the zipper so that it made a continuous oval shape similar to that of a Milano cookie and then I traced that shape onto a piece of paper (brown paper).
Next I folded that piece of paper (brown paper) and trimmed it so that the sides would be more or less symmetrical
Next I put that piece of paper (brown paper) on top of another (orange paper) and traced the oval shape plus a 5/8" seam allowance around onto the new piece of paper (orange paper). This leaves you with your pattern for the two halves of the bag. You want to use a seam allowance that is the same as half of the width of your zipper fabric.

Step 2: Cut Fabric

1. Pin your pattern to two pieces of your fabric.

2. Cut the fabric by cutting around the pattern. It should leave you with two ovals of fabric.

Step 3: Pin Zipper to Fabric

1. Pin one of the ovals of fabric to the fabric of the zipper seam edge to edge. Have the outside of the fabric face the outside of the zipper fabric at this seam.

Step 4: Sew Zipper

You are going to sew an "exposed zipper."

1. Sew the oval of fabric to the zipper fabric by using a zipper foot and sewing the seam right next to the edge of the zipper teeth. If you need to move the zipper pull during sewing, then stop sewing and turn the hand wheel toward you until the needle is in the fabric. Now you can release the foot to make room to move the zipper pull. Leaving the needle in the fabirc holds your place so that you can get a nice stitch.

2. After you sew this seem you can fold the fabric oval over the seam allowances and pin it so that the inside of the fabric oval is facing the outside of the rest of the zipper fabric.

3. Sew a second time along the length of the zipper about 1/4" from the first pass (which should also be the whole edge of the oval at this point). This step creates a flatter finished zipper seam that won't fray or get stuck in the zipper during use.

Step 5: Repeat

Now you are going to repeat the last two steps for the other oval of fabric.

*If you used a seperating zipper and at some point seperated the two halves he only thing you need to make sure to do is line up the zipper halves so that they start and end at the same corresponding parts of the oval shapes. The easiest way to do this is to close the zip up the zipper all the way while pinning.