Keep your book bag or handbag free of pencil shavings or mineral powder with this handy little zippered bag--and keep those essentials together for quick access!

Step 1: Materials List

Two pieces of outer fabric 6" x 10"
Two pieces of lining fabric 6" x 10"
Matching thread
Ruler
9" jean zipper
Pins
Ruler
Scissors
Sewing machine

(I bought a quarter yard of the two fabrics; I can get three bags from this amount.)

Step 2: Cut the Fabric

You'll need two pieces of each type of fabric, 6" x 10".

Step 3: Stitch the Lining to the Zipper

Press under 1/4" along one side of each of the lining pieces. Sew to the wrong side of the zipper.

Step 4: Stitch the Outer Pieces to the Zipper

Press under 1/4" along one side of each of the outer pieces. Stitch onto the right side of the zipper.

Step 5: Lining Seam

Flatten out the project, outside fabric down. Pull the two liner pieces together and stitch along the long side. Press open the seam.

Step 6: Top Stitch Outer Seam

This is the tricky part--not to do, but to describe. Press under the long edge of one of the outer pieces. You're going to pull it over and stitch it to the other long edge (and to the lining). To stitch it, you'll need to open the zipper; as you get to the end, turn the piece inside out to complete the seam. The finished seam reminds me of the outside seams of blue jeans. It's a top-stitch effect.

You don't want the lining to be bigger than the outside, because it'll bunch. So after you've finished step 5 and pressed the edge of one of the outer pieces, match the inside and outside snugly. Pinning helps, but if you pin it too much, you can't sew it.

Step 7: Stitch the Ends

Turn the piece inside out. Flatten it so that the zipper is centered on the bottom seam. Stitch across both short ends. Clip the corners.

Step 8: Sew the Diagonals

Now flatten the piece so that the corners you just clipped make points, as shown in the first photo here. Open the seams and find the spot where you're measuring 2" across (with the point of the triangle up). Stitch across that 2". You'll do that four times--twice on each end. The third photo shows one of those triangles stitched.