Makeup Bag Tutorial {+Monograms}

Go right ahead and make yourself comfortable because you are in for a long ride!  You know how I love a good, detailed tutorial so here we go!

Head over to PreciousPrep to check out what I make and sell - including these monogrammed makeup bags!  Order one today if you don't feel like making your own with my tutorial!

1. Cut out your material.  I start with a 9" x 12" piece of felt that I buy pre cut.  Then I lay that on my fabric and cut around it.  Finally cut that exactly in half so you have 4 pieces, all 9" x 6".  You will also need 2 small pieces to use as the zipper end covers (approx 2" x 3").

2. Add embroidery to one of your fabric pieces!  I love monograms! Sometimes I also just use an initial.  I also just added Greek letters to my collection.  (Remember, all of this is available to you at PreciousPrep!)

3. Fold over one edge of your zipper end cover. 

4. Lay the zipper face down, and wrap the fabric around the end, placing the folded over side towards the zipper.  Then sew a straight stitch near the edge, make sure you grab the fabric and zipper.

5. Repeat on the other end, you should end up with this:

6. Lay down your fabric, right side up.  Lay the zipper on the top, face down (aka facing the fabric).

7. Now lay a piece of felt on top, make sure all the edges line up at the top.  You should have fabric, zipper, felt.

8. Sew through all three layers at the top.  You could use a zipper foot here but I personally do not like to use one because I can never go in a straight line!  Anyone else have that problem? Any ways - just let the edge of the foot be right up against the zip part of the zipper.  The end with the zipper pull can be a little tricky, but just push it on through!

9. Next sew a top stitch.  I never used to do this because I thought it was a waste of time and thread but one time I tried it and it really makes a difference!  So just do it! ;)

10.   Now you are going to do all of that again on the other side.  Starting back at step 6!  When you're done you should have what you see below.  Make sure you open the zipper now!

11. Now take the 2 fabric pieces, right sides together, and sew all along the edge - only on the fabric part.  Then take the corner and mark about 1" from the point.  Draw a line or some sort of marking there:

12.  Sew across your line and then cut off the corner.  This will give your bag a flat bottom and allow you to fit more stuff in there!  Repeat for the other side.

13. Now match up the edges of the felt and sew along there, using a slightly larger seam allowance than you did on the fabric part.  Make sure you leave a turning hole on one of the sides or the bottom!

 Turning hole:

14.  Now do the same thing for these corners as you did for the fabric part:

15.  Turn the bag right side out.  You should still see the felt on one half and the fabric on the other.  Now is when you should sew up that turning hole:

16.  Push the felt down into the bag and use your fingers to get the corners all matched up at the bottom.  You did it!  You survived the world's longest tutorial and have a great, personalized makeup bag as your reward!

Bonus step! Make a bunch for your friends, sorority sisters, or bridesmaids!  Or order them from me!  I would love to create something special with you!  In my shop, PreciousPrep, YOU pick the fabric, thread color, and type of personalization (monogram, initial, greek) you love!  

Thanks for reading! As always, leave me comments with any questions!

Link Parties

So in my effort to expand the reach of my blog posts I am trying out these link parties.  I guess they happen every week and its a way for bloggers to help each other out.  Here are links to the two I've joined today (that's part of it... you link on their site, they link on yours!)

You can find a ton of these parties here.  They are sorted by day so these are both Monday parties.  I'm still learning so if you have any hints or tips for me I would love to hear them!

Not-So-Extreme Coupon Organizer

Today's tutorial is for a simple coupon organizer.  I have made several of these for my mom in the past and she loves using hers so much I have to keep making her new ones!  I also made one for myself this time since I have been getting into using coupons more and more.  You can buy one of those accordion coupon holders pretty much anywhere but... who has the space for that?!  Those things are bigger than my purse!  So here is my solution!

First gather your supplies:

Card stock (I use plain for the main folder and then had a second sheet for decorating)

Pencil

Scissors

Washi-tape

Paper cutter (optional, you could just use the scissors :)

Draw a tick mark every 3 and 3.5 inches on the plain card stock.  The 3 inch mark is for the height of each section, and the extra half inch is to leave room for the tabs.

I got 3 sections out of one sheet and then had a scrap piece I used for the last section.  If you want to have more sections, just cut more pieces.

Next you need to cut the tabs, make sure you can see each one!  I just took the top measurement (8.5") and divided by 3 sections to determine how long to make each tab.  Adjust based on your number of sections.  Remember if you have 4 pieces you will have 3 sections, 5 makes 4 sections, and so on.

Now I like to attach each piece one by one with washi tape (or really any tape would work but washi is so pretty!).  This way you know that each section is secure and your folder won't fall apart.

That completes the structure of your folder!  You could choose to stop here and just write on the tabs OR... 

You can decorate!  I used scrapbook paper to decorate the front and each of the tabs.

That's it!  What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments!

Here is another one I made:

Super cute!

Check out how to put your coupons to use over on my other blog: Deals Actually