How to Sew a Soap Saver Bag

This soap saver bag makes bar soap last longer. Instead of sitting in a soap dish, where it never really dries out, this mesh bag allows your soap to dry quickly. So, you don’t have to deal with that soapy sludge at the bottom of your soap dish, or settle for using a soft bar of soap – all of which adds up to less soap waste.

Just slip a bar of soap into the little drawstring bag; cinch it shut; then, use the soap like you normally would. When you rub the bar in your hands, the mesh bag will improve the lather of the soap. And when you rub it over your body, it’ll gently exfoliate your skin, which means you can finally ditch those bacteria-breeding plastic loofahs. Since these soap saver bags are machine washable, you can wash them as often as you’d like.

Oh, and if you constantly find yourself dropping the soap, this bag will solve that problem, too. Having an extra layer between your hand and the bar is just the thing to make that slippery soap easier to grip.

Just hang the bag from your shower organizer or shower valve when you’re done, and your soap will be dry and ready to go next time.

If you’re working to eliminate plastics from your home, and have made the switch to solid shampoo and conditioner bars, these soap saver bags work well for them, too. Ditto for solid dish soap bars. In fact, the bag can even serve as a built-in dish scrubber.

To eliminate more waste from your home, gather up all those soap slivers that normally go to waste, and stick them in your soap saver bag. This will make them as easy to use as big bars, and is a great way to use up those teeny tiny hotel soaps.

Speaking of hotels, this soap saver bag isn’t just handy at home. Take it with you when you travel, or go on camping trips, so you won’t have to deal with the hassle of transporting wet soap. Or make one as a gift for a college kid, who has to constantly schlep their soap back and forth from the bathroom. These also make a nice addition to Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. So, if you’re going to make one, you may as well make a bunch.

When I was developing these, I found commercial soap saver bags to be too small for the big, handmade bars of soap that I prefer, so I sized this one to accommodate bigger bars, and I’m quite pleased with the results.

Ready to make one? Let’s do it!

Soap Saver Bag Sewing Tutorial

What You’ll Need:

• (2) 5″ x 7-3/4″ pieces of mesh fabric (cotton, polyester, cotton/poly blend or sisal)
• 24″ drawstring (ribbon or cording)
• Thread
• Sewing pins or sewing clips
• Scissors
• A sewing machine (This is the machine that I have)

Optional (but nice to have):

• An air or water-soluble marker
• A self-healing cutting mat
• A rotary cutter (This is the one I have)
• A bodkin (for inserting the drawstring)

Tip: Mesh has a tendency to try to shift and wiggle when you’re cutting it, so I don’t recommend trying to cut both pieces at once. Normally that’s a time-saver, but I don’t think it is in this case.

What You Do:

Lay the mesh pieces for your soap saver bag out on your work surface.

Fold the top edges down 1/4.”

Then, fold them down another inch, to create the drawstring channel.

Zig zag stitch along the bottom of the channel to secure it in place.

Sewing Tip: When you’re working with mesh, use a short stitch length, and stick a piece of scrap paper under your project while you’re sewing, so it doesn’t get stuck on the feed dogs. It’s easy to tear the paper off, when you’re done. To keep the fabric from getting pulled into your machine when you start, hold on to the ends of your thread, until you’ve sewn a few stitches.

Pin, or clip, the two sides of the soap saver bag together, with right-sides facing.

Then, stick a piece of scrap paper under the bag, and sew a 1/2-inch seam around three sides of the bag, starting just below the drawstring channel on one side, and ending just below the drawstring channel on the other side. Since these bags will see heavy use, I recommend double stitching for added strength.

When you’re done sewing, tear the paper off the bag, and trim the corners.

Then, flip your soap saver bag right side out …

and insert the drawstring. I used a polyester ribbon for my drawstring, but a piece of cording would work just as well. Attach your string to a safety pin, or a bodkin (that’s the green piece of flexible plastic that you see in the photo), and feed it through one of the drawstring channels, until it comes out the other side.

Then, insert it in the other channel, and feed it through, until it comes back out on the side that you started.

Even up the two ends of your drawstring. Then, join them with a knot. This will keep your drawstring from pulling out of the bag, and will also give you a handy loop to hang your soap saver bag.

Tip: If you used ribbon for your drawstring, I recommend burning the ends, or dabbing on a bit of stop fray, to keep the ends from unraveling.

All done!

Slip a bar of soap in your finished soap saver bag. Cinch it shut. Then, go take it for a test drive.