Last week my sister-in-law was telling me about these travel toothbrush holders people are making out of wash cloths and ribbons. I told her I would be happy to make her one, so I took a look at a few tutorials and then decided to do something similar but different.
You see, I didn’t have any nice, thick wash cloths and decided I wasn’t going to go out and buy any for this project. I tried to figure out what I could do with a hand towel and some scrap fabric.
Have you ever tried to come up with a design for something and then proceed to make 5 different versions of the item just because you aren’t sure exactly what you want or what will work? Well, maybe that is just how the design process works for me.
Here is what I came up with for my sister-in-law, my brother, and their little girl.
This toothbrush holder will hold 4 toothbrushes and 2 tubes of toothpaste. My sister-in-law hasn’t used it yet, but hopefully it will work out well to hold all of their toothbrushes and toothpaste when they do any traveling.
I stitched elastic into a seam as the fastener for the toothbrush holder because I thought it would be quicker than tying ribbon. When they want to store the toothbrush holder for travel all they will have to do is roll it up and slip the elastic around it.
I made an identical one of these for our family, but it will only work for 4 of us. I would have needed to use a bath towel in order for all 7 of us to use it. 
This prompted me to try to make a few individual toothbrush holders. Each of my four older children now have their own and they are excited to get to use them.
I made Julia and James’ in a similar style and Joshua and Joseph’s in a different style. Each of the outer fabrics is different so there should be no trouble figuring out whose is whose when we travel.
This is Julia’s toothbrush holder. It has a toothbrush pocket and then a pocket big enough to hold dental floss and toothpaste.
This one is James’ and it is very similar to Julia’s. The main difference is that I made his a little narrower because I thought the toothpaste pocket was a little too big on Julia’s.
Both Julia and James’ toothbrush holders have a flap that folds down over the toothbrush and toothpaste.
This should keep everything in place even better than the toothbrush holder at the top of this post. Then they can just roll it up and slip the elastic around it.
When I was making Joshua’s toothbrush holder I took pictures of the process. The concept is the same as all of the others I have shown you. The main differences are the size of the towel and fabric, plus this one doesn’t have a flap that folds down.
I spent a lot of time playing around and not as much time taking good notes of what I was doing. So, if you have any questions please let me know.
The first step is to cut a piece of fabric and towel. I cut up a hand towel and some cotton fabric to a size of 8 inches by 14 inches for the smaller toothbrush holders like this one. If I were to make the individual holders again I would make them only 6 inches wide. I probably would make them all have a flap, too.
For the toothbrush holders with the flaps I cut the fabric and towels at 7 inches by 20 inches (pink and brown) and 6 inches by 20 inches (yellow and sports).
I cut the towel and fabric pieces for the large pink and burgundy toothbrush holder at 12 inches by 16 inches.
One thing I didn’t do for a couple of the toothbrush holders that I later realized I should have done was to cut all of the bound edges off of the towel. I recommend cutting them off if you make one of these.
Next, pin the towel and fabric with right sides together.
Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, stitch around the entire thing being sure to leave an opening of 2-3 inches for turning.
Turn the toothbrush holder right side out through the opening.
Fold the bottom up 4 1/2 inches and pin in place. Insert a 7 inch piece of 3/8 inch elastic under the folded part at the left like in the picture above.
Topstitch close to the edges around the entire toothbrush holder. Stitch over the elastic a couple of times to be sure it is secure.
The final step is to stitch lines for the toothbrush and toothpaste. After I stitched the first line on this toothbrush holder I decided to make another pocket to hold a flosser which I didn’t have for this picture.
For the toothbrush pocket on any of the toothbrush holders sew a seam that is 2 inches from the right edge. Then you can determine if you need another pocket for the individual holders.
The family sized toothbrush holder has seams sewn (going from right to left and measuring from each seam line, after the original seam) at 2 inches, 1 1/2 inches, 1 1/2 inches, 1 1/2 inches, and 2 1/2 inches. This should give you 4 toothbrush pockets and 2 toothpaste pockets.
While I am not sure if you can make sense of all of my notes for this project, the concepts are the same for each holder. Flap, no flap, wide, or narrow I think these toothbrush holders will be a big hit when we do any traveling. Plus, they will be so much nicer than plastic baggies.
