Turning a pair of socks into a small makeup bag

Recently my sister Momtaz who understands  my slight obsession for all things with macaroon designs gave
me a really fun pair of socks with a delightful tasty looking design.

They are lovely a perfect calorie free macaroon gift, lovely to look at but I have to be honest and admit I am a strictly black socks only girl. I just can't be wearing anything so flamboyant on my feet.  I toyed with the idea of making myself a  socks toy but  decided to make these delightful socks into something which would be useful like a little  make up bag. 

I started by gathering the materials for the make.

materials used : both socks, a ruler, a zip, pins, cotton thread, a needle, sewing machine and some stiffening material (I used a piece of interfacing for waistbands which was at hand and suitable)

The socks were laid side by side roughly matched to a pleasing pattern repeat and I used pins to hold the zip in place to make it easier to work with.

Next I inserted pieces of the interface into each sock. They were pushed in and roughly in the middle of the sock. This gave it strength at the middle but softness at the top and bottom edge for sewing easily.

The bag could have been made without it but I wanted it to be strong enough to hold  several eye pencils, and a lipstick without sagging.

The interface was slightly smaller in width than the socks because I was using what I already had but it was big enough. 

I folded the two socks attached by pins over to have the zip on the edge and tacked the zip in place with cotton thread.

I then used the sewing machine to sew up the zip on one side, opened the zip, socks out flat to sew the bottom of the bag edges together.

I sewed as close to the edge as possible. Having four layers of fabric  gives the base of the bag strength.

After sewing the base I sewed at a right angle

 to sew the side edge with the ruler acted as a guide for a straight edge o meet the zip where it ends.

The zip was then sewn in place. I did this without a zipper foot ( as I don't have one yet) so had to sew as far as possible up to the zip pull tab but  this left a small space which I finished by  hand sewing.

The other side of the zip was sewn by leaving the bag unzipped. Then it was  turning out the right way. The bottom edges could have been left as the sock fabric allows the bag to be shaped into a curved edge but I decided to edged off diagonally to give the base shape.

The make up bag looked great but I had a length of gorgeous pink velvet ric rac ribbon  and it just looked perfect for this. I hand sewed this on. 

Voila ! Here is the finished make up bag. It is surprisingly sturdy with the interface sandwiched between each sock making up the sides. Surprisingly easy to make, it could have all been done by hand sewing too.

I am really happy with my new macaroon sock make up bag. It is the perfect size for carrying some make up essentials for touch ups when I am out and about and will fit the smallest of handbags.

This idea could be adapted to make a coin purse, or a pencil case too!