Free Pattern! Zombie Brain Zipper Pouch

Hey ghouls and creeps! Have you heard that zombie’s brains make the best coin purses, makeup bags, or pencil cases? Well if you haven’t, now you know! I participated years ago in a zombie-themed fashion show and had every intention of making these as items to be auctioned during the event. However, I ran out of time, and ultimately volunteered some other handbags for the occasion. I stumbled across the fabric that I was intending to use for this project and thought, why not now? These quirky, bright, comical zipper pouches measure 8 1/2″ X6″ when completed making them perfect for storing pencils, a sewing kit, makeup, your wallet contents, or as a decoy during the next apocalypse.

The devil lies in the details on this one, because of all the little, precise processes involved I rated this project as intermediate. Some of these processes include: 1/4″ internal seam binding to conceal raw edges, sewing in a centered zipper, and machine embroidery. Harvesting zombie brains is not for the faint of heart, but sewing a zombie brain is, so let’s get started!

Step 1: Cutting Fabric: Begin by cutting two mirrored pieces of all brain parts using the PDF below. Don’t forget the notches located on the spinal cord piece, these will be needed to know where to end and start the binding.

Use the patch template PDF below to cut cotton and interfacing for appliques. The patch preference number listed on the images below are also listed on the templates, so that you know which to use. Cut the bias at 1 1/4″ wide by folding the liner remnant into a 45 degree angle in relation to the warp and weft weave.

Step 2: Sewing Shell & Applying Appliques: Sew your brain pieces to the cerebellum/spinal cord pieces with a 1/4″ seam allowance. If your material does not have an obvious right and wrong side, be careful to make sure that your pieces are mirrored.

After completing these seams, be sure to press your seam allowances up so that this doesn’t create extra bulk when doing the machine embroidery step to create folds in the cerebellum.

Construct your patch pieces by placing together the right side of fabric to the fusible side of interfacing and stitching together with a 1/4″seam. Be mindful to leave an inch and a half opening in the perimeter seam of your patch if it is square to be able to flip the patch right side out, if you opted for the triangle patches, disregard this step.

If you selected the triangle patches, only sew the two shorter sides, leave the longer side open for flipping later.

Flip your patches right side out, and press them where you would like them to be placed on the outside of your brain pouch. For my square patches I tried to keep them a little more than a half-inch from the outside edge, so they didn’t get sewn into my assembly seam later. If you would like your patch placement just like mine, please refer to the pattern for reference points.

Just to reinforce the hold of the interfacing, either machine stitch around patches to keep in place, or slipstitch the edge if you prefer to have no visible stitch line.

Take your black cross stitching floss and cut approximately 18″ from the skein, and separate two plies or threads from the rest. In general I stitched my X’s approximately 3/4″ apart, and each stitch was 1/2″ in length, this may have changed slightly depending on the arrangement or size of the patches.

Step 3: Sewing Zipper: Create a fabric sandwich by laying one liner piece face down, one shell piece facing up, the other shell piece facing down, and the other liner piece facing up.

Place two pins as markers directly across from one another that mark off the top half of the pouch, and sew a half-inch seam allowance using a longer stitch length (I used a 3.5 stitch length).

Find the center of your newly made seam and use this as a guide for placing the zipper, lining up the center of the seam to the center of the zipper. Pin the zipper tape to each side of the open seam, and hand baste in place. This will keep the zipper where it needs to be when doing your topstitching.

On the shell, mark the ends of the zipper with pins. Begin near one end of the zipper positioning foot so that that stitch line is landing a quarter of an inch from the seam. Once you reach the end of the zipper, stitch past the zipper stop a few stitches, and pivot toward the seam. Count the number of stitches needed before reaching the seam, this will be the number of stitches you’ll do past the seam making your stitch line placement uniform.

Pivot again to then stitch along the opposite side of the zipper, when finished follow previously mentioned steps to sew completely around the zipper. Take a seam ripper and gently remove baste stitching over top of the zipper, you now have a completed, functional zipper!

Step 4: Applying Seam Binding: Turn your pouch so that the liner is visible again and complete the rest of the perimeter seam. Trim the seam allowance down to be a little more than a quarter-inch, as well as cut notches around the frontal lobe and the corners and crevices around the spinal cord. Be sure to not trim seam around zipper, simply trim the quarter inch seam to flare to a half-inch at the zipper’s ends.

Finish the raw edges inside the pouch by attaching your bias to each side of the seam allowance between notches located on the cerebellum piece. When attaching the binding I found opening the seam up and sewing slightly outside of the seam center, made it easier to not catch the other side of the seam.

Fold the unattached edge of your binding over a quarter of an inch and then again over the seam’s edge. Sew as close to the edge of the fold as possible, once again with the seam open, sewing slightly to the side of the center of the seam. Repeat these steps, for the other side of the seam.

Step 5: Embroidery: Flip the pouch right side out using a bodkin, or other blunt poking device to turn pouch completely. Be sure to poke out the spinal cord entirely.

Use your contrasting thread to machine embroider the layers in the cerebellum. I first outlined the general shape, and then went in and filled that area with slanted vertical stitch lines. It may be a little bulky near the edges where you’ll be catching the binding ends, experiment with your stitch length, I used a 3.5 so that machine was able to navigate those bulkier areas easier.

Congratulations! You’ve finished your zombie brain pouch! You now have the perfect accessory for those close zombie encounters, and any frightening cosmetic, drawing utensil, or miniature apocalypse ration storage concerns you had before.

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Ready for your next project? Here are some tutorials on the blog I think you’ll like! Frame Flip tutorial: https://britnijade.com/frame-flip/, Macrame Wall Hanging: https://britnijade.com/macrame-wall-hanging-w-bones/, or the Spider Web Macrame: https://britnijade.com/spider-web-macrame/. Enjoy!