Embellished Zip Motif Bag

Taking inspiration from this season's hottest fashion trends, Corinne Bradd's stunning project combines vibrant pink silk with contrasting orange shades and dazzling diamantés for a rich and bejeweled effect. Perfect for adding a splash of colour and style to your wardrobe, the bold spiral design is fashioned from colourful zips and sequined braid for an impressive and unusual finish.

Essentials

Fabric: dupion silk, pink, 50cm x 70cm ; felt, 28cm x 70cm ; pink, 14cm square; printed cotton, 28cm x 70cm
Zips, heavyweight, open ended nylon, pink x one, orange x one
Braid, sequined, flat, pink
Diamanté, sew on claw set, small, medium and large

Dimensions List

Finished bag 22cm x 24cm; corsage 9.5cm x 9.5cm

Bag

Cut a 28cm x 70cm rectangle of dupion silk and press with an iron. With right sides together, lay the printed cotton onto the silk and place a 28cm x 70cm piece of felt on top. Pin and stitch all three layers together, leaving a 10cm gap on one short edge.
Snip the corners and turn out so the felt is sandwiched between the cotton and silk. Press the layers and slip stitch across the opening. Machine sew around the rectangle with a 5mm seam allowance.
Cut the remaining silk into two 11cm x 70cm sections. Stitch together on the short edge to make one long strip and fold in half lengthways. Sew along the length, turn the tube out and press so that the seam lies in the middle of the strap. Turn in the raw ends and slip stitch closed.
Fold the padded rectangle into three so the handstitched side is on the inside and the other end forms a flap. Pin the long strap in place down the edges of the bag, making a flat gusset at the base and oversew the strap to the main body of the bag, allowing the inside patterned cotton to show slightly to give a piping effect.

Corsage

Open and separate the two zips and discard the halves with the zipper tag attached. Lay the other pieces one on top of the other and begin rolling at one end around your finger to make a loop. To hold this in place, oversew along the material edge of the zip.
Position the loop, stitched edge down, onto the centre of a pink square of felt and slip stitch into place. Continue winding the remaining zip length around in a spiral, sewing it in place until you have completed two rings.
Continue stitching, but this time only sew one zip to the felt, forming a steadily increasing spiral as you go. Now stitch the second zip to the felt, positioning it inside the first spiral, but leaving at least one wide curve in the design.
As you reach the end of each zip close up the spiral so that it sits against the previous curve. Trim the felt square to 1cm from the outer edge of the spiral and stitch a length of decorative flat sequined braid around the circle.
Add sew on diamantes to your spiral motif by stitching the largest size inside the widest part of the gap in the shape and decreasing the size of gem according to the available space.
To finish, oversew the corsage to the bottom right of the bag flap, taking care to stitch through the dupion and felt layers only, and hiding the stitches beneath the decorative braid as you go.