Clothespin holder: A tutorial

So we’ve been drying our diapers (and clothes sometimes too) in the sun. The sun is great at getting out stains and killing yeast plus it makes me feel happy to look outside and see all Lucy’s little diapers out there in the breeze. What doesn’t make me happy – seeing little clothespins all around my kitchen.

So when Lucy went to sleep tonight, I thought I would take a few minutes and try to come up with a solution. And I had success, both in making a clothespin holder and in documenting it! I’m sure I’m not the first person to make one of these, it isn’t complicated especially if you have made a tote bag before, but I haven’t seen any tutorials so I thought I would pass the idea along.

Start by cutting out two 6”x18” pieces of fabric and two 6”x9” pieces.

Take one of the long pieces, fold it right sides together (hamburger ways :-) and stitch up each side from the fold to the open end. You now have an inside out pocket. Repeat with the other fabric.

Now let’s make the straps. Take one of the 6”x9” pieces of fabric and fold one of the short sides in 1/4”, wrong sides together, and iron. Now fold the piece of fabric in half (hotdog style this time), iron, and unfold. The point of this is just to find the center easily without measuring. Then fold the bottom edge up to the middle crease line you just made and iron.

Now fold the top down to the middle crease and iron. It’s hard to tell the right and wrong sides of this fabric but at this point, all the wrong side of the fabric should be facing the inside. Now fold the top down again and iron. At this point,three of the edges should be nice folded edges with one of the short ones still open. Top stitch around the 3 folded edges of the strap. Then repeat for the second strap. Now you should have two little bags and two straps.

Take the outside bag (I want my outside to be the red pattern and the lining to be blue)and turn it right side out.

Then place it into the lining bag that is still inside out. The right sides of the two bags will be facing each other.

All the way, making sure the side seams are lined up.

Now take the two straps and insert them, finished side first, into the bag, lining up the raw edges of the strap with the raw edges of the bag (I didn’t completely do this in the pictures or you wouldn’t have been able to see them). Place one strap next to each side seam but both straps on one side of the outside bag. You want the straps to go between the right sides of the two bags. The order should now be (from camera to ironing board): lining (facing down), straps, outer bag (facing up), outer bag (facing down), lining (facing down). Stitch around the top of the bag, leaving an opening about 2 inches wide for flipping. It is a little tricky to maneuver because the bag is small but if you take your time, you can do it. Do NOT sew the bag closed and do NOT sew all the way around without leaving the opening. Not that you would do such a thing :-)

Now flip the bag inside out (or inside in, actually) and you should have something like this.Now tuck the lining into the bag and it will make more sense.

Now topstitch around the top of the bag, using a seam allowance slightly less than 1/4” (I guess I didn’t mention that all seam allowances are 1/4” unless other wise noted) to ensure that you close up the opening you left for flipping.

Now we just need to add the velcro. Sew a matching sets of hook and loop material to the back of the each straps.

Then hang up and fill with clothespins. This tutorial was written using the sizes I used but if I were to do it again, I might make it a little big bigger. It holds one pack of clothespins, but barely. I’ve found that I’m having a lot of trouble lately clearly communicating (has mommyhood given me verbal dyslexia?) so hopefully this makes sense but if any of the steps are confusing, feel free to ask for clarification.