Make your own DIY soap pocket from a towel

I saw a cute tutorial for a DIY soap pouch made from a towel a while back and after receiving Stefania’s amazing handmade soaps back in June I decided to make myself one of them to use in the shower after my swim class. Soaping up with an undressed bar of soap was getting a little… um… awkward. It kept slipping out of my hands and sliding across the floor of the shower room, meaning I’d have to scamper after it between the legs of the other naked women. Yeah, awkward.

I’ll admit, I debated whether or not to publish this post for a while, but I’m going for it and am pushing that publish button. My husband had taken out our regular camera for the day, so I had to take my pictures with my phone while I was also helping my daughter with her own DIY project, which I may or may not publish sometime. I didn’t realize until later how crooked and distorted the photos were (which I couldn’t fix very much what with the gridwork background) and how the lighting and colors changed from shot to shot. While editing the pictures, I eventually just gave up trying to make them halfway decent. So please excuse the photography here!

Another note: I didn’t use the measurements given in the original version for three reasons. First off, I’m pretty sure my bars of soap were different sized from hers, so her measurements wouldn’t have been right for my soap. Second, I was using up scraps of towel left over from my pool changing room footmats and wanted to use the original towel edges as opposed to hemming the edges. Third, my computer was off and I didn’t feel like turning it on to check the original tutorial! However, if you are using a classic industrial bar of soap or you want to make a bunch from one towel, you might want to check out her measurements and method!

Ok, enough disclaimers. Onto the project! It’s really easy, much more so than it probably seems here. As I said, I reused an upcycled towel for this project. First off, place the bar of soap (here, Stefania’s lovely lavender soap) on the right side of and near the edge of your towel, which should be folded over the top of the soap so that it reaches about halfway down. Then cut about 2 cm around the bar of soap.

You need another piece to complete the pocket. Unfold the top and cut out a second piece from yet another towel edge to reach almost the entire way up the bar of soap. Its width should be the same as the first piece. If you’re not sure of how long to cut it, make it on the long side, lay it over the soap (right side down), and trim the bottom.

Slip the end of the first piece back over the soap, but UNDER the edge of the second piece. Don’t pull it down tight. If you don’t keep it somewhat loose, it can be hard to slip the soap in at the end.

Pinching the edges of the top fold down to keep it folded in place, slip the bar of soap out the bottom. Line up the bottoms of the two towel pieces again and pin all the edges. Make sure that the top flap is still under the second piece. I added another pin in the middle where these two pieces overlap just to help keep everything in place.

If you would like to add a little strap, cut a piece of ribbon about 30 cm long and just put in a couple of pins to keep the pieces in place, as you can see above.

Fold the ribbon in half and place it between the top and bottom of the folded flap. Pin in place with just the ends of the ribbon sticking out. Then fold the second piece back into place and pin all around the edges.

Now sew all three cut edges (not the folded edge). Serging the edges made it really quick and easy but you can also use a regular sewing machine. I’d suggest sewing a straight stitch on the three sides and then zig zagging the raw edges so they won’t unravel or lose little bits of towel fluff (which you can see in some of these photos).

Make sure you remove all pins, turn the main bottom part of the pocket right side out and slip your soap inside.

Look, your soap now has its own sleeping bag!

Flip the top around the top of the soap and you’re done! If the pocket is very wide or high for the soap, just turn it inside out again and sew the edges further in to tighten it up. Just remember you want a little extra room to be able to turn the top part around the top of the soap. When you need to soap up, get the soap and pocket wet and squeeze and rub them together a little bit. It will start to get a little lathery (not as much as those sponges that are used with bath wash, though) and you can get to work cleaning yourself without having to worry about your slippery soap flying out of your hands anymore!  Another nice use to these pouches that I discovered? If you save up all the little bits of soap when a bar of soap is almost used up, you can put them all inside one of these and use them up with ease!