Jan Andrea at home on the web

Baby-Related Crafts | Links

The URL for this page is: http://crafts.sleepingbaby.net/dipecase.html

These directions are for personal use only. If you wish to sell a diapers and wipes case, you may use these as a base pattern, but please make significant changes to the finished product -- the flap is particuarly ripe for design elements. Please click the "some rights reserved" button to the upper left for more information. This pattern is copyright to me (Jan Andrea) and is NOT for resale under ANY circumstances, nor are diaper/wipes cases made from the design. I DO peruse Etsy and eBay from time to time, and I know my pattern. Please make significant changes to the design if you are selling anything from it. If I wanted to have items sold from this pattern, I would license it. I prefer to leave it free for *personal* use, so I don't do licenses. Please respect the time and effort I have put into the pattern, and *don't* sell it as your own.

Update: 29 October 2007: Due to the number of unauthorized copies of the pattern that are apparently floating around (that is, copies of the pattern printed from my site with the copyright information stripped off), I have made changes to the pattern and these directions. Prior to this date, the pattern had an inwardly-curving flap (as seen in the line drawing at right). That pattern is STILL under copyright. If you receive a paper printout, PDF, or other form of the pattern with the copyrights stripped, please be advised that it was an illegal copy and should not be used to make diaper/wipes cases for sale without significant changes to the design as above.

Fabric diaper case

This always seemed so self-evident to me that I never bothered putting up directions, but since you can now buy one in "boutiques" for as much as $15... Here's all you need to make your own. It's sized to fit a travel wipes container (you know, those hard plastic ones that hold wet baby wipes) and a few disposable diapers; if you increase the dimensions by a bit, you can put your cloth dipes (or a whole lot more disposables) in it, too. (I would like to make it clear that I have not seen one of the $15 ones in person, and this is my interpretation of a generalized design. I have in no way copied the dimensions, styling, or other features of the one that is patent-pending, and had made fabric diaper-holding cases for myself before that one came on the market.)

I would recommend measuring the wipes case you use most frequently before sewing this. If it's wider or thicker than a standard case (I used the "Huggies" hard plastic case when making the pattern), you'll need to enlarge the pattern correspondingly. An extra inch is probably sufficient for most larger cases, but do experiment before cutting your fabric. You can estimate how much wider you'll need to make the case if you stack up your wipes case and the number of diapers you plan to carry, then measure around the stack with a tape measure. The finished fabric diaper case as printed is 13" all the way around (measuring around the girth, parallel to the "crafts.sleepingbaby.net" imprint on the one in the picture above). If your stack is wider than that, you'll need to add some width to your pieces. I would cut the piece in half vertically, splice in the amount you'll need to add (keeping in mind that you need to add half that amount to both the front and back pieces -- so if you need an extra 2" total, you'd add an inch to the front and an inch to the back), and go from there.

Materials needed:

Fabrics: "Fat quarters" (pieces that are 18" by 22") are sufficient for this project! You'll need one of a fashion fabric, and another for lining (or you can use the same two; you'll need two pieces that are about 15" by 14").
One 2.5-3" piece of hook and loop tape (like Velcro®)
Pattern pieces: Front, Back piece 1, Back piece 2 (with flap) [Pieces are GIFs and will open in a new window. Back pieces overlap and are taped together where marked -- whole piece is too large for a single piece of paper.]
Matching thread
Around a half-hour of your time, depending on your sewing knowledge

Directions:

Note: All seam allowances are 1/2 an inch.

Cut out all pattern pieces -- you'll have two front pieces (one of your fashion fabric, one of lining) and two back pieces (one fashion fabric, one lining). [Note: the pattern pieces for the back must be taped together where indicated before cutting the fabric out!]
Sew the hook side of the hook and loop tape to the flap piece of lining where indicated.
Sew the loop side of the hook and loop tape to the front piece of fashion fabric where indicated.
Sew the two fashion fabric pieces together around the sides and bottom, right sides together (top diagram at right). Repeat with lining fabric. Trim and/or clip curves and corners.

Pattern and directions are copyright to Jan Andrea, sleeping baby productions, and are not for resale or sale of items made from the pattern.
Turn the lining fabric pouch right-side out, and put it inside the fashion fabric pouch, so their right sides are together.
Starting about 1" from the left seam, stitch the lining and the fashion fabric together around the top of the bag and the flap, leaving an opening in front for turning (lower diagram at right).
Trim curves and corners, then turn the bag right-side out through the opening.
Push the lining into the pouch (make sure you also turn the flap part right-side out), and topstitch around the flap and front edge of the pouch, catching the open part so that it is now closed.

Voila! Your own fabric diaper case... and for a heck of a lot less than $15 (plus shipping and handling), even if you factor in your time. Make a bunch to give away, or one to match each of your baby carriers!

Other ideas:

Add a long strap to make a dipes & wipes only bag you can wear over your shoulder (strap would be sandwiched between the fashion fabric layers at both sides).
Add a little wrist strap to make it more portable, or a strap with a couple of sets of snaps to allow it to hook onto a belt, carrier, diaper bag, etc.
Put a belt loop on the back for the diaper-changing man in your life (just use fabric he'll like; it'll never look like a diaper bag, and is far more portable than a "real" diaper bag).
Put a pocket on the front or back for ointment or other little diaper-changing necessities.
If you have multiple children in diapers, make these in different colors to keep the sizes separate.

Here are pictures of my little prototype (the one made from this pattern is about 1/2" narrower, because the width of the one in the picture was a bit much):

Diaper case, open, contents half-out Diaper case, closed.

Link to me!

Did you use this pattern and like it? Please link back to me from your site or blog! (This is not an invitation to copy the file to your site, nor does it imply that the file is freeware. Please read the Creative Commons license in the "some rights reserved" link below for clarification.)

The URL for this page is: http://crafts.sleepingbaby.net/dipecase.html

Here is a little graphic you can use: Rev. Jan's Baby Crafts

To make a link, please copy the graphic to your own directory (linking to it here is theft of bandwidth! Shock/horror!) by (PC) right-clicking on it, or (Mac) clicking and holding, and selecting "Save picture as..." Then copy this code and paste it onto your page wherever you want it:

<a href="http://crafts.sleepingbaby.net/dipecase.html" target="_blank">
<img src="link.gif" alt="Jan Andrea's Baby Crafts" height=50 width=135></a>

Remember to change the image source to wherever you've saved the image! And thanks for the link!

All content, barring that which is otherwise attributed, is ©2007 to Jan Andrea. If you wish to use my content on another page, please email before doing so, even for content with the Creative Commons licenses. Text/images used elsewhere must be attributed to me. Be advised that I will pursue copyright violations.