Baby Clothes Pouch

Having finished the nursing pillow, I had some fabric left over, so I decided to make a pouch, which is very quick and easy to make.

These pouches are useful for a whole bunch of things, especially when you have to leave the house with baby, we generally use them to keep a change of clothes for baby. They can also be useful  when the little tots start nursery school, then you can just sew on some straps to the back of the pouch or a handle to the top, and they can wear them as a back pack or bag to take an extra set of clothes to school or whatever.

You can make them any size you want, just adjust the measurements. Mine is approximately 32cm x 23cm, including 1cm seams, so when finished it will measure 30 x 21. The little Flap for the pouch is 12cm x 23cm

After you have cut 2 parts of the outer fabric and 2 parts of the lining, (Lining and outside fabric are the same size), and cut 2 parts for the flap . Attach interfacing to both sides of the outer fabric, and to one side of the flap.

 

Right sides facing each other, sew around the edges of the outer part, the lining and the flap, leaving the top parts unsewn. In the lining leave about 6cm unsewn on the side, this gap is where the pouch will be turned inside out once it´s finished.

To give the pouch some depth make box corners, on both the outer part, and the lining.

To do this fold the corners into a triangle, measure about 3cm from the outer edge in the center, mark with a ruler and stitch along the line.

If you look carefully you will notice that I forgot to leave a gap open on the side of the lining, but no worries, if the same happens to you, just unpick some stitches.

Cut off the triangle bits, but before cutting them off, turn the bags inside out to make sure that the corner seams are aligned, if they aren’t, just unpick and redo. The first photo below shows  my seams,  not perfect but good enough.

Now the Flap ….turn the flap inside out and fold in the corners so  they become diagonal.

Next pin the flap to one side of the outer part.

Then with the right side of the lining facing the right side of the outer fabric, slide outer part including the flap inside the lining.

Pin around the top and sew all the way around, 1cm from the edge.

Trim off the excess bits on top and turn everything inside out through the gap on the side of the lining.

And there it is.

Top stitch around the edges of the flap so that it looks neater, and add some snap studs. Oh… and don’t forget to sew the gap in the lining closed.

And there you have it……. a new nifty pouch. 🙂

Here is a photo of another one I made, but here I chose a different fabric for the flap, and the pouch is slightly smaller.