*This tutorial was made by Kate @ see kate sew for her win in the Thrift Store challenge*

Do you have a little bum that needs a diaper clutch too? These are simple to make and you can really use them for anything! They would be a great makeup bag or lunch box too. But please pick one purpose for it. We don’t want an old diaper clutch becoming a lunch box…

I picked up a beautiful suit for $4 on half price day. I almost felt bad cutting it up. I thought maybe I should get it altered for my husband. But I shut my eyes and snipped into it with my Ginghers. I had so much fun making the first clutch I knew we needed more. The zippers were also from a thrifty escapade at 25 cents a pop. Can’t beat that for high quality vintage materials.

Prewash your suit. If you’re like me you’ll probably boil it as soon as you get home from the thrift store. Since my suit has synthetics in it, it didn’t felt.


Cut up your suit. You need 4 rectangles that are 12 inches wide and 9 inches tall. I self-lined the clutch and it turned out nice and sturdy. I tried one with a nylon interior(so it would be wipeable) but I prefer the self-lined one. It’s so sturdy.


To start the pouch, lay one layer of suit fabric down and place the zipper face down lined up at the top. Layer on another piece of fabric and pin them together in a sandwich. Sew at 1/4″ and it will look like this:

Now flip the zipper up and make another sandwich with your remaining two layers, one on each side of the zipper. The fabric you’ve already sewn on will be in the middle.