Shorts (or Any Other Item of Clothing) to a Simple Zipper Pouch

I had these shorts of which I liked the fabric, but would never wear them. I wanted to re-purpose them and decided to make a very quick and easy zipper pouch with it. Not much time or extra material is needed, but I did use a sewing machine and a zipper that was not in the shorts.

Find an Item of Clothing or Any Textile That Has Some Surfaces Big Enough to Make a Pouch Out Of

I used these shorts, the front for the outside and the back for the inside of the pouch. I then took the shorts apart and removed the pocket from the back.

Cut Four Even Rectangular Surfaces.

You can adjust the zipper to fit a smaller surface, but your rectangles cannot be much bigger than the zipper if you want it to cover the whole top of the pouch.

Sewing the Zipper to the First Two Rectangles

Place the zipper on the textile you want to use for the inside. If it is printed on one side, the printed side should be facing you. Next you line up the outside textile over the inside. The zipper is now in between both. I pinned it and used the special zipper element of my sewing machine to sew it in place. The last picture shows the result after this step.

Sewing the Zipper to the Other Two Pieces of Fabric

Again we line up the fabric and zipper starting with the white textile I am using for the inside of the final pouch. We fold the two pieces we attached previously so they do not cover the other half of the zipper and then line up the top of the zipper with the white textile. Next you align the outside textile. Pin it and sew it in the same way we did in the previous step.

Sew Over the Zipper One More Time

This step is not necessary, but does result in a nicer looking zipper. We sew over the zipper one more time so it becomes flatter as you can see in the difference between these two pictures. I also sewed over the end of the zipper because it was slightly too long for the pouch, but this is not necessary, the next step will have the same result.

Closing the Liner and Outside

We continue by sewing an almost complete rectangle along the outlines of the pouch. Starting with the bottom right corner (white liner) we sew all the way to the left (over the zipper on to the outside textile). Follow the outside fabric, over the zipper again to end our sewing in the top right corner. NOTE: you need to leave part of the white liner open since we will turn the pouch inside out for the final result.

I continued by trimming the edges a bit and then turn it inside out trough the hole in the white textile.

Sew the Last Open Hole in the White Liner

Now we just have to close the hole we left to turn the pouch inside out.

Don't worry too much about the looks of this part, it will be inside the pouch anyways.

And Voila!

Push the white liner inside the pouch and voila! An easy quick home made pouch!