Baby Gift Zipper Pouch - Tutorial

My lovely friend Vanessa got a big surprise when her baby boy decided to arrive quickly and unexpectedly last Wednesday night, four weeks early. Great news, but I was caught short without a gift - I thought I had a bit longer to prepare something! She has a 3 year old daughter, so I knew Vanessa had lots of pink and red accessories, but not much in blue. I wanted to make something, and I had a window of about two hours where I could whip something up before heading to the hospital for a visit. This is what I came up with:

I am not a big fan of the large nappy (diaper) bag, so I love a zipper pouch full of baby change gear that I can fit in my bag, throw in the car or stash in the pram. Here's how I made it:

Decide on what you want your pouch to hold. I wanted one that could hold some nappies (diapers), a packet of baby wipes, some plastic bags and some rash cream, or alternatively, a change of clothing and a bib for a baby or toddler. You will need a zipper (I used a 35cm / 14"), and two coordinating fabrics, one for the exterior and one for the lining.  Cut 4 rectangles, 2 exterior, 2 lining.  Mine were approximately 28cm / 12" wide and 25cm / 11" long, but you can cut them any size depending on the size you want your pouch.

Sandwich the zipper between one exterior piece and one lining piece which are right sides together, along the upper side of the zipper. Pin into place and sew.

Turn fabric out to wrong sides together and press.

 Turn around so the other side of the zipper is now the upper side, and sandwich the zipper betweem the two remaining pieces of fabric right sides together. Pin in place and sew.

Open out and press. It should now look like this:

Lining

Exterior

 *Critical Step - Make sure you open the zipper half way at this point. Don't forget or else later you will have to unpick all your hard work!

Flip your fabric so the exterior is right sides together and lining is right sides together. If you would like to add a ribbon or strip of fabric to create a wristlet, this is the point where you need to add that.

Lay it between the exterior fabric in the position where you would like it, with raw edges at the seams. Pin all edges, but leave a couple of inches gap in the lining. I turn my pins the opposite way to remind myself to leave a gap.

Sew all the way around, I like to reverse a couple of times over the zipper and ribbon wristlet to reinforce, but that's optional.

Before turning the pouch out, I like to box the corners because it creates a larger interior in the bag. This is optional, and will slightly alter the shape of the pouch, so if you prefer a rectangular pouch, perhaps skip this step.

Pinch the corners of your pouch so that the seams run down the centre of the triangles you form when you pinch. For this pouch I boxed all my corners 4cm in from the point. 

Sew across and trim the corner off, like this:

Once you have done this for all corners including the lining, use the gap in the lining seam to turn your pouch out.

Pinch the gap in the lining and pin if you want to.

Stitch close to the edge to close the gap, then push the lining into the pouch.

You are now finished! For a cute baby gift, fill with bits and pieces a new mum might need on the run - some nappies, wipes and cream.

Or as an alternative, you could make your pouch out of a fabric you know your friend will like, and fill it with some lovely products to pamper a new mum!

If you make one I'd love to see it! Please share a picture over at my Flickr Group!