Little Girl's Quilted Purse Tutorial (Beginner Friendly!)

Years ago, I created a tutorial for my very first blog for a cute little purse I made as a gift for my daughter. That was in the early days of blogging when everything was fun and fancy free. Long story short, I stored photos on Flickr back then and the Flickr proceeded to lose a ton of my photos and so the tutorial for this purse had holes in it and I got comments asking for the missing photos for years afterward.

It was a GREAT, easy little project, though, and the first tutorial I ever had that went kinda viral, so I’ve been wanting to recreate it for a long time and I finally got around to it!

Two quilted little girls purses, one with blue fruit fabric and one with yellow fabric with white daisies, on a green background

You can learn to sew a little girl’s quilted purse with my beginner friendly video tutorial and/or printable PDF pattern. This purse is quilted, but I promise it’s not hard or time consuming, and it’s the perfect size for toddlers all the way to around age 10. I’ve made this purse for many ages and it’s been loved by all!

The elastic opening at the top creates a cute ruffle and also keeps things from falling out. The finished purse measures about 10” wide and 11” tall without the handles.

Let’s get started!

You can watch the free video tutorial below, or head directly to my shop (or Etsy if you prefer), to download the printable version. Both options have complete step by step instructions!

Fabrics for this purse can be pretty much anything, you can even raid your giveaway bag to harvest fabrics from cast off clothes. I chose to use cotton fabrics for mine. The cute fruity fat quarters I used in the video were ones I got from the Annie’s Fat Quarter Kit Club! I recently published a thorough review of this fabric subscription service and I still really, really love it. I look forward to it every month and have used every single collection. Fat quarters are perfect for this little purse and I knew when I got this particular collection, it was time to revive this kids’ purse tutorial!

Besides fabrics, you’ll also need a piece of quilt batting and some 1/4” elastic. That’s it! This project is pretty scrap friendly, it doesn’t take much fabric at all.

Other tools I used in the video and ones I’ve been asked about every time they appear, are my FastTurn tube turning set and my Scotch brand measuring masking tape.

pink pig rag doll peeking out of a yellow little' girl's purse, on a green background

I truly believe this little purse makes a great gift for little girls and it happens to be a perfect fit for the Phoebe Rag Dolls! There’s plenty of room in there for their extra clothes too. How sweet would it be to gift your daughter or granddaughter a sweet handmade doll with a complete wardrobe, all together in a cute little purse for carrying the doll around?? So cute.

I grabbed this photo from that original blog post of my daughter wearing the O.G. version of this project. She used this purse for years, it was so sweet how much she loved it. Such memories are made with handmade things. That sweet little girly girl is now a 17-year-old girly girl!

Little girl from the side wearing a handmade quilted purse with ruffled top and heart fabric

I hope you enjoy this project and make lots of little purses! I think you’ll be surprised at how easy and quick these are to make. Don’t forget you can grab the printable version here so you don’t have to refer back tot he video each time.

Until next time, happy sewing!

Nikki