Recently, I’ve been sewing like crazy for the new baby. I feel a little badly about this, because poor Jude didn’t get all this sewing before he was born, but different babies equal different motivations. Plus, this is probably our last baby, so this is my last chance to do all this fun baby sewing.
Diaper Bag
The biggest thing I’ve made so far for the little guy is the new diaper bag. (Of course, I guess that this is really for me!)
I received this book for Christmas:
I can’t say enough good stuff about it. The steps to make the bags are fairly simple and the bags turn out beautifully. The instructions are wonderful and everything on the bags is finished so nicely, that they really look professional.
I asked for this book because I heard that there was a really nice diaper bag pattern in it and I couldn’t really find a diaper bag that I loved. So with the help of this book and some really fun fabrics from Jo-Ann’s, I made a pretty spiffy diaper bag.
Here are the pieces made up before they were all sewn together:
The two smaller pieces are the sides, which each have a pleated pocket big enough to hold a bottle, cell phone, etc…The large piece on the left is a small pocket that has a divided pocket. It doesn’t open very wide, so I’m not sure what will go in there, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. The big piece on the right is the changing pad. I was really nervous about putting two zippers into the bag’s side, (I have zipper-phobia) but the instructions were simple and it turned out very well.
No one even wants to know how long it took me to pick out all this fabric. As soon as I saw the birds and flowers fabric, I knew that was the one I wanted. I then had to pick out four more coordinating fabrics. This was a challenge because I didn’t want them to dominate the main fabric, but I wanted them to be fun. I finally decided on brown with dots for the pocket edging and inside pockets, colorful stripes for the top edge and for the strap, blue “brocade” print for the outside pockets, and yellow plaid for the lining.
The above picture is the Changing Pad pocket unzipped. The top of the changing pad velcros to the edge of the flap of the diaper bag to make an extra long changing pad. The pockets are very full and have elastic at the top, so they can easily hold wipes and extra diapers.
And here is the inside of the bag. One side of the pockets have elastic tops and are very full, the other side are much thinner pockets.
Finally, here is the finished bag:
It is heavily lined, so it stands up on it’s own. It also has a nice key clip on the top (second picture). It was one of the details that I really liked on this bag.