Greetings! Around a month ago, my brother and his wife asked me if I would like to make them a diaper bag, for the baby, who is due in May. They had been on the hunt for a bag my brother wouldn't feel silly carrying, and they really liked "The Everything Bag" pattern in Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. My sister-in-law has done a little sewing herself--she's made a couple adorable baby quilts--but felt that "The Everything Bag" might be a little too tricky for her. I, however, have some bag making experience, so I guess they felt I was qualified enough to make them a diaper bag. (Mwha ha ha! I've fooled everyone!)
My brother and his wife sent some fabric: mid-weight cotton for the exterior (ivory with blue polka dots) and regular quilter's cotton for the interior (green with jungle animals). Both were good choices, but I really liked the animal print.
I managed to find all the notions at my local Hancock, except for single-sided fusible stabilizer, which was needed for the interior divider and also for the bag's bottom ("fusible" means you can fuse or stick it to the fabric using an iron; interfacing and stabilizers basically reinforce fabric). Hancock had double sided fusible and non-fusible stabilizers. Where was the desired single-sided fusible stabilizer? I ended up with non-fusible stabilizer and a can of spray-on fusible stuff to make the non-fusible into a fusible. Are we all con-fused now?
Moving on. The bag's arbitrary difficulty level is a four (Ms. Butler doesn't really explain what the difficulty levels mean in this book; there are five levels, with level one being the easiest. Don't think that I'm a master sewer just because I completed a "level four"; I'm certainly not.) I take the level four to mean that "there are a lot of steps, most of which make sense, but there are a couple that could have used some better editing, but you'll have to figure those out on your own." I've never really had a problem with Amy Butler patterns before, but there were two spots where the directions were either murky or wrong.
The first problem for me was Step 2G. For all of you out there trying to make this bag, for Step 2G, I just fused the two Peltex/stabilizer divider panels together. That's it; forget the rest of the step because it did not make sense to me and the bag still turned out fine.
The second problem was Step 7A. The directions call for you to "Place one side pocket panel with interfacing and one without interfacing Right sides together. Pin the short top edges. Stitch a 1/2" seam along the pinned edge..." This is wrong. The pocket panels measure 7x7.5 inches. So, the directions tell you to sew one of the 7" edges. If you do that, though, the pocket will not fit onto the side panel; it will be too short. Instead, sew one of the 7.5" (or long edges) together so it fits. True story: I had to completely re-cut and re-fuse the interfacing because of this typo. Not a big deal, but frustrating to have to do a step over because of poor editing.
Despite those two snags, overall the bag was not difficult to make. Sure, there were a lot of steps, but they weren't overwhelming (except for 2G and 7A, of course). The hardest part was trying to get the bag to fit under the needle on my machine in some steps. The divider panel was pretty stiff, as was the bottom of the bag so maneuverability was tricky. And honestly, I'm way more intimidated by the thought of sewing clothes than a bag. If a bag looks a little off, it is less noticeable than if the fit of one's clothing is a little off.
All-in-all, the bag turned out well, and the parents-to-be really like it. This was probably the trickiest project I've made so far, but I think my sewing is better for it (even with the two snafus, which, in hindsight, helped me more clearly envision the involved steps). This is something I would consider making again in the future, diaper bag or not. The style doesn't scream "diaper bag" and picking a non-baby fabric would reinforce that; it could make a nice sized beach-tote. And usually projects are easier to make the second time around because I know what I'm doing.
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