Makeup Bag with Vintage Metal Zip

I am so in love with this makeup bag. It fits all of my makeup perfectly without any wasted room. And, I attached the zipper so that it is exposed in all it's cute, colorful vintage glory, yet the edges are finished on the inside properly. 

I started off my dumping my makeup in a pile and roughly measuring said pile. Then I took those measurements and a pencil, and drew two pattern pieces. I've had this shape in my mind for a makeup bag for quite a while, it was nice to see it actualize.  I didn't photograph the pattern pieces as I was making it, but I drew a little rendition of their shape so you can see how easy the bag was to draft.

 

The front/back piece is an inch wider at the bottom and cut on the fold so the final piece has a 2'' discrepancy between top and bottom. The side piece is 2'' wide where it becomes the bottom of the bag, then quickly tapers where it meets the corners to about 1/2''. 

I attached the zipper by sewing the lining/exterior fabric right sides together to the zip with a teenytiny seam allowance, then flipping and ironing. This way as much of the zip was left exposed as possible. I also waited to interface the front pieces until after I had attached the zipper, to prevent bulky seams.

I got SO LUCKY with the color of the zip and the piping. I had bought the piping when I picked out the fabric, but I totally forgot I had this zip. I was going to use a dull green one, pshh. How much cooler is this color combo?

This was my first time piping seams. I used my Singer Genie with a zipper foot attachment to sew as close to the piping as possible, but even that left it with more showing than I would like. I'll read up on inserting piping and try again when I'm not worried about catching a flight. 

Overall, I love my new bag. It's about 10''x2''x3'' (measurements taken on bottom, before the bag tapers). Its bigger than I thought I would need, but still fits into my big weekend purse. I'd like to make another in the same fabric, but super big, for all of my toiletries. How cool would that be when packing?

I mentioned a while back that I'd be making a few grad cakes for friends. I totally forgot to post pictures. This was for my friend Michael who is going to UC Irvine on a great scholarship. The bottom tier is peanutbutter cake with chocolate ganache filling and the top tier is vanilla cake with chocolate ganache filling. Both are iced in Italian Meringue buttercream and covered in homemade fondant.