A few weeks ago, my husband requested that I design mesh daycare pouches. He was tired of sending our son’s second batch of clothing to daycare in zip lock bags. While we really like zip lock bags in our house, my husband thought it was time to send the clothing in a nice little bag. And he said, isn’t this the perfect opportunity for a “project”!?
The finished pouch holds a pair of toddler pants, t-shirt and a diaper. My husband was very excited when he saw the finished product. He said that the the diaper bag was now OUT and that the pouch was IN – this was his new carry all. He then requested that I make another one – a mini fanny pack version for our baby to wear and carry his own stuff. Ha, we”ll see about that one.
My favorite part of the pouch is the name tape that I added across the front. I bought this at Namemaker – this is just a strand of uncut iron on labels. I have wanted to incorporate Tanner’s name tape into a project for awhile now. Make sure to check out the Namemaker website – labels, labels galore. I already have a new idea in mind.
Before we get started, here is some basic info:
You will need to make the pattern for your pouch. Don’t worry, they are super easy to make. I found it was easist to draft the pattern right on the mesh and fabric using my Chaco lining pen and then cut it down to size with my rotary cutter. You will need to make the following pattern pieces, the measurements include SA:
- Mesh – main pattern piece. Draw a rectangle 18″ x 11 3/4″
- Fabric trim – 3″ x 11 3/4″ [ also cut 2 pieces of cotton duck or interfacing]
- Straps – 1 3/4″ x 20″
Materials Needed:
- Fabric
- Interfacing or cotton duck
- Mesh
- Velcro
- Iron on labels / uncut
- Clip and D ring
- Clover Chalco pen
- Olfa rotatary cutter and mat
- Thread, pins, scissors
- Pens, paper and ruler
- Sewing machine
- Iron and ironing board
Ready to sew? Here are the 8 easy steps:
- Cut your fabric. Fabric trim – fold under the SA at each end. 1/2″ for the top edge and 1/4″ for the bottom edge. Press with an iron. If you bought the name tape, iron this into place. You may need to stitch the tape into place
- Place the trim around the mesh ends. The 1/2″ SA will cover the top raw edge.
- Pin in place. Fold under the 1/4″ SA and pin. Place into your sewing machine and edgestitch down
- Turn over to back side. Place velcro down – you will need to cover the raw edge of the fabric with each velcro strip. Pin each in place and then stitch down. Note to self – you want to make sure that you cover enough of the fabric raw edge [at least 1/4″] and also to really secure the velcro down. I made a previous clear pouch for a friend and her child loved playing with the pouch. Over time, he gave the pouch a “wear and resistance” test and pulled the top area apart!
- Sew your straps. I have an awesome strap making tutorial here. Once you have completed the straps, insert your D Ring end and the clip end into the side seam near the fabric trim. You will sew the side seams with a french seam. Start with wrong sides togther, sew with a 1/4″ SA. Make sure to backstitch and really secure your ends
- Turn right sides together and finger press the side seam. You want to catch all the SA in your second seam, so stitch this seam with a large enough SA. I used a 3/8″ SA. Batchstitch at each end
- You have finished 1 side seam
- Sew a french seam for the other side – turn the pouch back to wrong sides togther and repeat. You are finished!
I’d love to hear if you make this pouch or something similar. As always, please contact me with any questions or comments.
Happy Sewing!
I like the name label tape part of this. Very clever.
This is really neat. I saw your other post on the vinyl pouches. I like the idea of mesh. Where did you buy it? Is it hard to sew with?
Hi. Thanks for stopping by. The mesh was really easy to work with. I found the mesh at a small independent sewing shop. Seattle Fabrics [.com] sells mesh. Try checking them out. Let me know how it goes, I think you will really like sewing with it 🙂