Handmade Diaper Clutch Tutorial

It's finally here. This is my first ever attempt at a blog tutorial, so it's far from perfect. My camera is not stellar and some pictures look worse than I thought they did when I first took them. Hopefully they're good enough you'll at least get the general idea. I'll try to replace them eventually.

I would welcome any feedback - or questions if you need clarification - of any part of the process so that I can make this as helpful as possible to anyone in the future.

What is a diaper clutch?

A handy (and stylish!) little pouch to compactly store a spare diaper or two and package of wipes, particularly when you're sick of carrying a diaper bag but you're still in need of these critical supplies. This serves a couple of purposes: to keep diapers from getting squashed and wadded-up at the bottom of your purse, and makes it more convenient to hand all the supplies over to your husband at once when you're out in public and a diaper needs changing! 🙂

Getting started:

(Before you start, I always suggest reading through the whole tutorial to get an idea of what you'll be doing. Cut's down on the mistakes. Also might not be a bad idea to make a practice clutch first before you cut-up your favorite Amy Butler fabric.)

Diaper Clutch Supplies

• 8"x 23" piece of two coordinating fabrics
• 2" of velcro (both sides)

Cutting instructions:

From outer fabric cut: one piece 8"x 10" and one piece 8"x 13"
From lining fabric cut: one piece 8"x 10" and one piece 8"x 13"

Sewing instructions:

Pin the 'loop' side (soft side) of the velcro to the front of the smaller outside fabric.
I measured 3" in and 2 ½" down.

Then pin the hook side (rough side) of the velcro to the large piece of lining fabric - 3" in and 1" down.

Sew on the velcro. (Sew it securely - don't forget to back stitch.)

To create the closure flap, I then stacked the two large coordinating fabrics back to back with the smaller front fabric on top, lining up the bottom edges. Line up your ruler at point *A -the top of the front of the clutch - and move the ruler in one inch on the diagonal to point *B.

Cut.

Repeat on the other side. (Ignore my pinned velcro.)

(This part of the process is far less critical and there's room for lots of variation here, so feel free to be creative.)

Round of the bottom edges. I used a really high-tech tool called an upside-down-applesauce-cup.

Match-up fronts and backs of outside and lining fabrics, lining-up bottom edges. Sew together front and back of each group around the sides using a ⅜" seam allowance. Clip curves.

Trim the lining fabric closer to the seam. This will reduce fabric bulk inside the lining.

Turn the lining fabric right-side-out and put it inside the outside fabric pouch so that right-sides are matched-up together.

Pin around the flap and inside edges. Starting from about 1.5" from the right seam stitch the lining and front fabrics together around the top of the front of the bag and around the flap edge.

(You are going to use the area left open for turning the bag right-side out and will later top-stitch it closed.)

This is the trickiest part. When sewing you're going to put the throat of the machine 'inside' the 'inside-out' bag. I used a ⅜" seam. [Sorry about the bad picture!]

This is what the stitching will look like when it's done.

Clip top corners.

Turn both bags right-side out through the opening and tuck the lining inside the outer bag.

Carefully press the top flap

and top-stitch around the outer edge of the bag and flap, closing the opening used for turning right-side-out.

Voila. A lovely baby gift. Here is mine with a coordinating nursing cover. A long over-due gift for a friend. Finally done! And so is this tutorial.