Tetrahedral Coin Purse - A Fun & Puzzling DIY Project!

I came across a tutorial for this tetrahedral coin purse a few months ago.  In the holiday lull (I know, what lull, right?!?!), I finally had a chance to make one!  It's now in the possession of one of my sisters and I hope she's enjoying it.  I have to find more ribbon and make myself and my daughter one, too - they are not as time consuming to sew by hand as one may think and the final product is so much fun!  It's like a little brain teaser to carry around in your purse - and it's useful too!

Craft Passion: Zip Itself Coin Purse Tutorial

I wanted to share photos of my project and point you all toward the original tutorial.  I stumbled upon (I really do like that button....)  the pattern originally at Craft Passion.  If you haven't visited this awesome site of easy patterns and tutorials, you should!  The purse is called a Zip-Itself Coin Purse on Craft Passion, and the directions are pretty easy to follow.

Some alternatives you may want to try:   

Use 2 ribbons, one inside and one outside, instead of fabric.  Craft Passion used a ribbon on the outside and a fabric liner.  I used 2 ribbons and I think it worked out well.  However, make sure your inside ribbon is just a little smaller than your outside ribbon, or that you sew the far enough away from the zipper teeth so the zipper doesn't get caught on the ribbon liner!  I had to re-sew a portion of my purse because of this.....

Use other sizes of ribbon - I used 1 inch ribbon.  It helps to have some sewing experience if you are going to change the pattern, but it's doable.  Grab a longer zipper (I think I had 24") to make up for the difference in pattern sizes.  Be prepared to finish the ribbon BEFORE the end of the zipper.  Just trim off the excess zipper and finish as per the directions!  It's really important to follow the "shaping" portion of the directions if you change the pattern, too.....just zip up your purse periodically to see how it's coming along!

Machine stitch some of the ribbon to speed up the process - This would be pretty easy on the straight portions of the pattern.  Some things to keep in mind include matching your thread well because it will show more than hand-stitching and you will still have to hand stitch the liner to keep the purse looking nice.  OR machine stitch the liner first - I don't know how hard this would be.  I actually hand stitched the whole pattern even though I really don't enjoy hand-stitching.  It took maybe 2 hours, so it wasn't that bad and I got some practice!  Some others who have used Craft Passions tutorial were able to machine sew some of their work.

Add a zipper pull!  I love my beads and had to add a little something more.  There are a couple options for this - make a permanent pull by stringing on beads to an eyepin and closing the eyepin over the zipper (pictured) OR make the eyepin and attach that to a clasp, then attach the clasp to the zipper.  This one would be interchangeable!

And one final hint - some ribbon melts under a flame really nicely.  Depending on your ribbon, you might consider finishing off the cut edges of the ribbon via flame, instead of folding under and sewing as per the directions.  It works for me, anyway!

Happy Creating!
PZ