Summer is around the corner and that means swimsuit season! After swim lessons or playing in the pool I’ve always rolled my children’s swimsuits up in a towel. Unfortunately, this always ends up in a big mess and my whole bag, stroller, and car somehow get wet. This year I will be prepared because I now have a mommy’s secret weapon: the wet bag. This handy little bag is lined with plastic vinyl inside to contain all that water and wet stuff. Just zip it close and carry it home. Simple. This bag is also perfect for all those parents currently potty training. When your little one has an accident you can just slip the messy pants into a wet bag and no worries. The best part is that you can clean the inside of the bag with Lysol or any cleaner. Just wipe it down. Here is a quick tutorial on how you can make your own wet bag.
What you'll need: 
*Fabric of your choice. It can be cotton, denim, flannel, or whatever you want.
*Plastic or vinyl. I bought mine at Walmart super cheap. It feels like a thin plastic shower curtain. If you can’t find this at your local fabric store, you could always try a very inexpensive shower curtain.
*Zipper-mine was 14 inches.
1. I cut my fabric and plastic 12 inches by 14 inches. You can make yours bigger or smaller. Just make sure you have a zipper that is long enough. I would make sure it was a couple inches longer than your cut pieces.
2. Place the zipper right side up along the top 12 inch side of your plastic/vinyl. Place your fabric, right side down on the zipper lining up the top edges (12 inch side). Sew it together. Take your time because the plastic/vinyl is slippery and likes to move around. 
3. Open up your two pieces and top stitch down through the outside fabric, zipper, and plastic. 
4. Just repeat steps two and three on the other side. Sandwich the already sewn side between the plastic and the outer fabric, lining up the top 12 inch edges. 
5. Open up your zipper halfway.
6. Open up the fabric so the outer layers are together, right sides together. Line the vinyl/plastic up. Starting at one side sew three of the four sides together. Be sure to leave the vinyl/plastic 12 inch side alone. Do not sew that side together. 
7. Very carefully, pull the sewn fabric layer up through the bag and turn the whole bag inside out. 
8. Fold in the 12 inch side of plastic/vinyl in by a quarter to a half an inch. Sew this side. Then very carefully push this vinyl back into the bag.
You’re done! Zip the bag shut and you now have your own wet bag.
Next, use your leftover plastic liner to make these handy Resuable Snack Bags from We Wilsons!
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55 Responses to “wet bag tutorial”
Where did you get that fabric?? SO cute and what a good idea!
Great tutoril! I will have to try it.
What a great idea! Thanks for the tutorial...I might have tot try this one.
That's so genius!
Very smart. I'm sharing this with a cloth-diaper-momma friend of mine.
You ladies always have the good stuff over here. Keep it up! :D
i'm planning to make at least 2. thanks for this!
Great tutorial!! I'll be making some of these bags for our trips to the pool this summer!
I posted a link to your tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing Blog:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-sew-a-wet-bag-to-carry-wet-swimsuits/2009/05/07/
--Anne
brilliant...moved to the top of my list!
Love this...thanks for sharing.
Why haven't I ever thought of making these myself? Everyone in my family has a wet bag, and we use them all the time. They are our wet swimsuit bags when we come home from the pool. They are our dirty laundry bags when we travel overnight. They're also our "I spilled something on myself" bags for when we're out and around.
I'm going to link to your tutorial on Sunday. Thanks for sharing!
What a great idea!!!
Where were you when my daughter was little? You always come up with the most clever things and they are so easy to do...or at least you make them look easy. And if you get a chance, please stop by my newly redesigned blog at my new domain and tell me what you think of it.
great tutorial! i just need to learn how to sew so i can make these for my daughters cloth diapers.
This is great, I could totally use one of these! I'll be linking.
Great tutorial!
This is from Amy Butler's Belle collection. They have it in different colors. You can find it online or your local quilt/fabric store may have some. Here is a link to one store that carries it: http://quilthome.com/Amy_Butler/Belle
Thanks so much for this GREAT tutorial....but, where were you when I was potty training my girls? :) I put a link to this on my blog: http://notsoidlehands.blogspot.com/2009/05/wet-bag-tutorial.html
Really cute tutorial, I'm goning to have to try it, as my daughter has just started swimming at school!
Thanks for sharing your brilliant idea... and how to make it. Now my mum has a wet bag for Mothers Day!
I love this blog!! I cloth diaper and use wet bags for the dirty diapers. Love them!! Recently my wetbags bit the dust and now I have instructions that I can read verrrry slowly and maybe I'll be able to make my own!!
Thanks!
This is a wonderful idea!! Now I have one more reason that I need to learn to sew! ;)
awesome idea! thanks for the great tutorial. also the first 5 people who check out my blog and leave me a comment will get a grocery bag collector FOR FREE! lol. i'm totally pimpin myself out here!!
This is great! Thanks for including the tutorial!!
Awesome tutorial. I've never even heard of this concept. I love it, though. I live in AZ, where we will be swimming everyday for the next 5 months! This will be great to have for each of my four kids. (I have a few that still soil their clothes too!) Thanks Ladies!
This is a really neat idea! Would be real handy for packing shampoo bottles for traveling, in too!
Just made one and posted about it on my blog. Thanks.
I have a shower curtain left over from my homebirth - will be making one of these as soon as I can sneek the machine out without my DH spotting it again!
thanks!
I like the idea of using it for shampoo etc for travel. And for carrying around when potty training in case of accidents.
This would also be great for carrying around for those who use cloth menstrual pads! Which I do. Then I can have something truely beautiful to put my pads in till I can get them home to wash. :)
Thanks for this!
That's for the great idea and tutorial. I put a picture of the one I made with a link to yours on my blog today. Thanks again!
http://lifeofamodernmom.blogspot.com/2009/06/ive-been-wanting-to-try-and-make-this.html
I love this! I feel silly asking this, but I have read it over and over in attempt to avoid the question. Are there two pieces of fabric and plastic that are 12 x 14? or are you simply connecting the large piece with itself. I think it is the latter, but pic #6 is really throwing me off. Thanks so much.
There are two pieces of fabric and two pieces of vinyl. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the great tutorial. Such a fun project and I was able to finish it in a naptime. For others thinking of attempting it, I would avoid see through vinyl. That's about all I could find on a quick run to the store and it just stuck to everything. I might have preferred sliding around to sticking to everything.
http://azwhipple.blogspot.com/2009/06/sew-crazy-for-polka-dots.html
love this, and just made mine...
here is a link to my post about this fun bag...
http://leslieautumn.blogspot.com/2009/07/see-cool-water-park-in-our-neighborhood.html
been loving all your tutorials, and don't think I've told you that!
Nice article you got here. I'd like to read something more concerning that matter.
BTW check the design I've made myself Overnight escort
I need help. If you are using PUL instead of Vinyl, do you lay it shiny side down when you lay the zipper on top and then the fabric right side down? PUL only have one waterproof side so I'm trying to figure out which way to lay it
Thank you so much for the tutorial! My diaper wet bag is finished and I love it! Your stuff is always so fabulous!
http://tinyurl.com/yhs36zu
This was awesome, I made 4 or 5 already. I used the clear vinyl that you can pick up at Walmart for $.97 a yard. I love it because I used a contrasting fabric on the inside for a little extra fun. The best part about using the clear vinyl is that it comes with a tissue paper backing. The best thing to do is sew through the tissue paper and then rip it off after you are done, this makes using the vinyl extra easy!
I was making a last minute baby shower gift, and this little wet bag is perfect for dirty little baby duds. I did not have vinyl or an extra shower curtain liner, so I used fused plastic I made from clean garbage bags. I was confused on step six and after some trial and error I think I did it right. I layed my bag out with the zipper separating the fabric halves (right sides together) and the plastic/vinyl halves on the other side of the zipper, like a large rectangle. I sewed starting on one vinyl side of the bag, down and across the zipper and down the fabric side, than across the fabric bottom, than up the fabric side across the zipper and up the vinyl sides leaving the 12 inch bottom of the vinyl open. Than continued with step seven, worked out well.
thanks so much for this tutorial. :) I'm actually going to give it a try today. I'm going on vacation next week and would love to make one for each child. I'm thinking of adding their first initial to the front to personalize it a bit. :)
I did a search for these and found this post. Haven't tried mine yet, but featured this post today.
Thanks for this tutorial. I would really like to make a wet bag to use as I use cloth diapers on the kids as much as possible. I'd rather use something reusable instead of throwing out a plastic shopping bag each time.
Love it! And it seems so easy...
Thanks for the great tutorial! I made one today with vinyl, but it keeps getting jammed into the zipper even after I top stitched it. Is anyone else having this problem?
I might be over thinking this...
I'm just concerned about wicking-
What type of thread?
Is there a better stitch?
Anyone seal the edges? How?
Thank you for the tutorial! I love my new wet bag. I blogged about your design today.
Just made one of these for our camping trip this week! Can't wait to use it! Thanks!
Wow! I wish that I would've googled "how to sew a wet bag" 4 HOURS AGO!!! With your instructions, I did in 5 minutes what I couldn't do in 4 hours. Have one slight personal alteration to the instructions, but your directions were flawless. Moral of the story: always google first.
Okay, I am having trouble with step 6 also. The picture shows the fabric on each side of the zipper but the tutorial says right sides together. I do not like how my corners look where the zipper is, when I turn it right side out. Can someone clarify step 6 so I know I am sewing it correctly.
Thanks,
Gma2be
I absolutely love this tutorial! I have now made a few wet bags for myself and friends, and they have been a hit! Thanks for the pics and tutorial!
http://monkeysinthekitchen.blogspot.com
I was confused about #6 also. I purchased a see through shower curtain and it's horrible. I'm not sure exactly what to use now. I was using thick plastic and that didn't work either. I've got another to make so I'm going to try the tissue paper this time. If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do. I am in a hurry to get these done, since my daughters are leaving for camp tonight. I have a few other things to do also and just need to finish this now.
I've made many of these for baby showers and for my own use. THANK YOU for the tutorial. I used shower curtain (which ripped after multiple uses) and plastic, but Ben Franklin carries actual liner you can use for these bags. It's been fabulous and looks so professional.
Since I don't have a zipper (and I'm trying to go as cheap as possible), I'm making mine with a roll-down top. I'll make the bag a little taller and attach a button on the back, loop on the front. That way when I use it I can just roll the top of the bag a few times and fasten it up.
Thanks!
Thanks for writing these directions - I used your tutorial and posted about it!
I am new to sewing and this seemed like a handy bag and an easy project. However, being quite the novice I got stuck in step 6. Just to clarify, there are 2 pieces each of fabric and vinyl correct? After you have the zipper attached as shown in the picture after step 6 I am not sure how to get to the next step. By looking at the picture, it seems that I have to sew the 2 vinyl sides together(not the bottom) and then the 3 sides of fabric together. Is this right? Any clarification will help a lot! Thanks
Thank you so much for such a well-done tutorial. Zippers really scare me and this made it so easy! When my friend who uses cloth diapers found out I could so, she commissioned me to make a giant wet bag. Thanks to you, I did it!!!
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