How to Sew the Drop Zone Zippered Tray Pouch: Tips for Quilters
Some pouches hide everything you put in them. The Drop Zone does the opposite. Drop Zone is a pattern for multipurpose zippered pouches in three sizes that open up to create shallow trays, giving you great visibility and easy access to whatever is inside. Zip one closed and it is a compact pouch for carrying; unzip it and lay it open and it becomes a tidy tray that keeps small items corralled and in plain sight on your sewing table, desk, or travel bag.
What the Drop Zone Pattern Is and Why Sewists Use It
The pattern includes complete step-by-step instructions for bags in three sizes, and the process is the same for each size, so once you have made one, the others come together the same way. The finished sizes are:
- Small: 2½"H x 5"W x 5"D when open, 2½"H x 5"W x 2½"D when closed
- Medium: 2½"H x 7"W x 5"D when open, 2½"H x 7"W x 2½"D when closed
- Large: 3"H x 9"W x 6"D when open, 3"H x 9"W x 3"D when closed
Sewists use them to store and carry personal items or a variety of art, office, and craft supplies. Grab tabs make opening and closing easy, and the optional hardware on one end may be used to attach a strap or other object. For quilters, that open-tray design is especially handy beside the machine: clips, pins, and small notions stay visible instead of sinking to the bottom of a deep bag.
How to Use the Pattern, Step by Step
- Choose your size first. Pick small, medium, or large based on what the tray will hold, and remember the process is the same for each size.
- Read the whole pattern before you cut. The pattern is written as complete step-by-step instructions, and reading ahead helps you understand how the zippered pouch turns into a tray.
- Cut and quilt the body fabric. Complete the cutting and quilting step for the body of the bag before you start sewing the pieces together. This is the preparation step the pattern itself recommends doing ahead of time, including before a class session.
- Follow the steps in order. Work through the instructions sequentially to construct the pouch, add the zipper, and form the tray shape.
- Add the grab tabs and optional hardware. The grab tabs make the pouch easy to open and close, and if you add the optional hardware on one end, you can attach a strap or other object.
- Test the tray. Zip it closed, carry it, then unzip and open it flat to check that it sits as a shallow tray and that your contents are easy to see and reach.
Practical Tips
The Drop Zone makes a great class project for confident beginners to advanced makers, and the pattern suggests allowing about three hours to make one bag — a useful guide for your own first attempt, too. Finish one bag first so the construction sequence makes sense, then repeat it in another size. Coming to the sewing stage with everything already cut out and the body fabric already quilted makes construction go much more smoothly.
Care and Storage
Because the pouch zips fully closed, it stores neatly in a tote, drawer, or suitcase without spilling its contents. Keep the pattern with your bag patterns so you can remake the sizes as gifts or replacements, and store finished pouches opened into trays on a shelf if you want their contents ready to grab.
Project Ideas
Make a medium tray as a sewing-room catch-all for clips, bobbins, and seam rippers. Sew the small size as a travel kit for personal items, and add the optional hardware so it can attach to a strap inside a larger bag. Use the large size for art or office supplies at a desk, or make a matched set in all three sizes — the same process each time — as thoughtful handmade gifts for fellow makers.
Shop the Drop Zone at Linda's Electric Quilters.
