The Nappy Bag NOT from heaven: :

This bag was definitely not from heaven (I'll leave it up to you to figure out where its from).  Although I must say the finished result is pretty heavenly!

One of my good friends is having a baby this October. She is also a sewer (seamstress?) and so of course she is churning out lots of goodies in anticipation of number 5 (!).
Everything I decided to make for her, she's already making! Seriously! My first thought was a quilt (no surprises there) but I think she is currently onto quilt number five at the moment. Then I thought a stool...yup she's made one of those too, and the list goes on.

So I thought I was getting out of it easy when I volunteered to put her nappy bag together.

I was wrong!

This sucker was sooo thick I broke at least 6 needles!! Yes, yes, some of you may question my needle choice, they were just universal needles...and maybe a few quilting needles (What? I was getting desperate!), but the craft store isn't open Mondays, and well, today being Monday....you see my problem?

Anyway, lets look at some photos

 

The fabric is all from fabric.com, and is mostly Cotton and steel. The outer, horse fabric is canvas, with some fake leather accents on the bottom and in the middle of the ruffle. My friend picked the pattern, and to be honest I'm not 100% sold on the ruffle and I was tempted to leave it off, but I reminded myself that its not my bag and put it on there.

Its probably one of the things she loves most about the pattern :)

It has loads of storage, as every good nappy bag should.

I added the blue pipping around the lid.

 (See that baby block? That's me styling! Yeah! I'm doing it!)...that's me being sarcastic if you couldn't tell.
When I was cutting the bag I really stewed over pattern placement, especially on the lid. I knew I wanted a whole horse on the lid, but didn't want it to be smack-bang in the centre. I could've fit two horses on the lid but it looked silly, so after lots of internal debating, I settled on one horse off-centre.

I also *tried* to match up the pattern on the lid with the front of the bag, but it didn't turn out too well, so lets just pretend that I didn't and it just happened like that.

The last step in the pattern was to top stitch all around the top of the bag. I tried...I really did, but I came to the conclusion that its physically impossible without an industrial sewing machine, so I unpicked my poor, poor effort and left it.  (I don't think I'll mention that to my friend either).

The pattern is called 'The Lola Bea Diaper Bag', Im *pretty* sure it came from Etsy. Check it out if you like it.
You may notice that I omitted the strap and went for a pre-made leather strap from a previous bag. The side ring-holders (don't know what they're called!) were made by me and my ingenious brain! (and therefore are not part of the original pattern.)

Its always hard to sew for a fellow sewer, as they can pick mistakes, but all in all I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Next time though...I think I'll just stick to quilts :)

Jessica

Nappy (Diaper) Bag : :

When I was pregnant with Little Miss S (she's 7 weeks old now), I was on the hunt for that perfect nappy bag. One that would be big enough to carry everything I needed, be happy to carry around for the next year or so AND that didn't cost the earth. Asking much? Apparently I was!!

I couldn't find one anywhere that I liked, except for a couple of really cute leather ones that were way too expensive. (Seriously, for a $700 nappy bay I could pay someone else to carry the nappies!)

My friend had a few bag books that I borrowed and I found the perfect nappy bag pattern in this book...

This book has some really cute bag patterns, but to be honest, the only ones I would be tempted to make would be the nappy bag pattern (the one I made) and perhaps that cute bike bag on the front page. But that's probably more of a refection on me, who doesn't need or even want a bag for every occasion, than the book.
 Ha Ha, just give me one big bag that I can use for everything and Ill be fine!

Like this one....

Let me just say that I.LOVE.THIS.BAG!!! Really love it. The pattern called for laminated cotton, but after searching high and low for a print that I liked (and not finding one), I decided to make it out of canvas and linen.

Believe it or not but I had the grey linen and blue canvas hidden away in my cupboard, and I'd completely forgotten about them! Both were purchased from a craft show several years ago. The canvas (by birch) was going to be used for a pillow, and the linen, a quilt.

The only two things I had to purchase was a little bit of fabric for the lining and the metal O-rings.
I'm really loving not buying fabric...did I just say that? Shopping in my stash is really satisfying!!

I was going to make the strap from fabric as well (as the pattern says to) but I found this awesome leather strap that I'd saved from a bag (that's long dead).I found that in the depths of my wardrobe during some spring autumn (?) cleaning, and it was a perfect match for my bag!

The thing I love most about this bag (apart from its superior good looks and *ahem* quality sewing) is all the pockets!!

Seriously, this baby has a space for everything!! If I need to carry it...there's a pocket for it!

Of course that doesn't mean that I don't just throw everything in when I'm in a rush in the mornings.....but if I *wanted* to be organised, I could be. That's what important right? Right!

My favourite pockets on the bag is the two on the front with the valcro flaps. It makes finding my keys, wallet and phone sooo much easier because I just keep all three in one of those. The other one I use for a small packet of baby wipes, mostly for my 2 year old son, and cleaning faces as the twins get out of the car for school in the morning (honestly, some mornings they have everything from toothpaste around their mouths to Milo on their foreheads).

I honestly will never buy another nappy bag again. When this one wears out, I will just make another. Its that good!!
(Did I mention that I love it?)

Jessica