Cute as a Button

I've missed blogging a couple of things lately. One of them is this cute little zipper pouch that I pattern tested for Nikki. I know Noah loves little pouches to put his treasures in, so I made this for him. I really expected that he would choose the monkey fabric, but he chose the buttons instead.



This pattern is the You Sew Girl Coin Purse, which has been re-done with lots of new pictures to show the whole process and is available as a downloadable pattern, so you can get started on your purse right away.



I added this cute little aeroplane zipper pull too. Isn't it cute?

Issue with Janome Zipper Foot

Does anyone else have this problem? The zipper foot gets me past the magnetic catch just fine, but the part where it snaps onto the machine gets in my way!

Apart from sewing further away from the magnetic catch, which is the obvious solution, does anyone have any ideas to get around this problem? Is there an alternate Janome foot that is not a "snap-on" that I can use? I can't think of any examples at the moment, but this is not the first time I have had this issue with the Janome zipper foot.



By the way, if I were to sew further away, I may as well use a standard foot. If you can see, on the other side of the magnetic catch, I have a bulky seam to sew along too, so that doesn't help either. So frustrating!

Update: You can see my solution here: Sashiko Satchel

Zip Left, Zip Right

It is always best when sewing zippers, especially when top-stitching, that you sew in the same direction from each side. My industrial machine has a left foot and a right foot. My domestic machine has one foot that does both sides. From memory, the industrial feet cost me $6 each a couple of years ago from here. The invisible zipper foot for my regular domestic machine cost around $20. Still totally worthwhile.