Small Shoulder Bag Sewing Pattern | Zip Top with Two Side Pockets | 24 x 12.5 x 8 cm | A4 & US Letter PDF | Instant Download

A small bag with somewhere to put your sunglasses.

Not inside, where they get scratched and lost under everything else — in an open pocket at each end of the bag, where you can reach them without stopping. One end for glasses, one end for a water bottle, and everything else zipped safely in between.

The body is structured, so it stands up on its own flat base instead of slumping. The zip runs the full width of the top, so it opens properly rather than through a slot. And the strap is cut from the same fabric, through metal D-rings at each corner.

📏 Finished Size

24 cm (9½") wide × 12.5 cm (5") high × 8 cm (3¼") deep

That is an everyday size, not a small pouch: a phone, a purse, keys and a lip balm inside, with sunglasses in one end pocket and a small bottle in the other.

Please check these dimensions against what you carry before you buy.

🧵 What You'll Receive — 3 PDF Files

PDF 1 — Step-by-step instructions. A complete sewing tutorial with clear written steps and photographs through the whole construction. PDF 2 — Pattern pieces, A4. PDF 3 — Pattern pieces, US Letter.

Three digital files. No physical product will be shipped.

🪡 What Makes It This Bag

• 👜 Two open side pockets, one at each end — the reason to make this one
• 🤐 Metal zip running the full width of the top opening
• 📦 Flat boxed base, so the bag stands upright by itself
• 🔗 Two metal D-rings on fabric tabs at the top corners
• 🎀 Shoulder strap cut from the same fabric
• 🧱 Fusible fleece and interfacing throughout, so the shape holds

🛍️ Materials & Supplies

Only basic sewing supplies, plus:

• Quilting-weight cotton fabric
• Fusible fleece
• Medium-weight fusible interfacing
• A 21 cm (8¼") zip
• Two 1.5 cm (⅝") D-rings
• 110 cm (43½") of 4 cm (1⅝") wide bias tape

The seam allowance for the zip is already included in the pattern.

🎨 Choosing Your Fabric

One tip that changes how the finished bag looks in a photograph, and on your shoulder.

This bag has a lot of construction: a zip line across the top, two pocket edges, a seam around the boxed base, two D-ring tabs. All of that only shows if your fabric has some depth to it. A very pale print on a very pale ground swallows every edge, and the bag reads as a soft shape rather than a made object.

A print on a darker or mid-tone ground lets the light catch each edge, and every seam you sewed becomes visible. It is the same fabric quantity and the same work — it simply shows.

🖨️ Printing

Pattern pieces come in both A4 and US Letter, for standard home printers.

Print at Actual Size / 100% scale. Do not select "Fit to Page" unless the instructions specifically tell you to. Always check the included test square before cutting your fabric — it takes a minute and it is the difference between a bag that fits its zip and one that does not.

📊 Skill Level — Intermediate

You will insert a zip, apply fusible interfacing and fleece, sew a boxed base and bind with bias tape.

None of it is advanced, but the zip and the boxed corners both reward accuracy, and a bag shows its mistakes more plainly than a garment does. If you have sewn a zip before, you are ready. If you have not, this is a reasonable place to learn one — it is a straight zip, set into a band, with the seam allowance already worked out for you.

💰 Making These to Sell

You may sell the bags you make from this pattern in small quantities — at markets, at fairs, or to people who ask. Please do not resell, share or redistribute the pattern files themselves.

💛 Perfect For

Sewing enthusiasts and bag makers · everyday small bags · handmade gifts · a first structured bag project · a use for that one special fat quarter

📦 Please Note

• This is a digital PDF sewing pattern, not a finished bag. No fabric, zip, hardware or finished bag will be mailed to you.
• Download the files and print the pattern pieces at home.
• Colours may look different from one screen to another, and your fabric choice will change the look completely.