Baby carrier bag

Baby-Carrier Bag: Pattern/Tutorial

I've seen through the stats page for this blog that quite a few people seem to have found their way here through searching something like "baby carrier storage bag". I put into my review about my Onya carrier that one of the first things I did was make a bag for it, so I thought I'd write up how I made mine. It's very simple, but it works for us.

Ours has a draw string closing:

 And two handles, one on either end.

We just fold in the straps and the sides of the carrier, roll it up and stuff it into the bag.

To make a bag just like this, you will need:

One rectangle of fabric: 44 cm wide by 65 cm long. I used something in a light upholstery weight.
Webbing or ribbon: 2 pieces @ 24cm (could easily be replaced by tubes of the same fabric as the bag).
Cord or elastic: approximately 120 cm
One of these doodads, that is apparently called a "cord lock".

Thread, sewing machine, bodkin or safety pin.

Instructions:

1. Fold your fabric in half, wrong sides together and right sides out, short end to short end (folding the long edge in half), so you have a shape 44 cm x 32,5cm. Sew a seam along each side, 1/2 cm from the edge. You should have a very basic pocket with a fold along the bottom and a seam on each side, right side out. Make sure the edges are neat: if frayed, trim them neatly.
2. Turn it inside out, so it is now wrong side out. Make sure you push the seams out fully, so the fold on each side is right on the sewing line. Sew another seam along each edge, 1 1/2 cm from the edge.
3. Take a look at one bottom corner. Using a pin, mark the fold along the bottom edge of your pocket 15 cm from the corner. Mark 15 cm up the side seam. Push those two pins together and pin carefully, lining up the side seam with the bottom fold. Push out the rest of the fabric to the sides, so you have a neat right angle with your seam splitting it in half. Mark 5 cm along the seam from the corner. If you have correctly matched the seam and the bottom fold, it should be 5cm from this point out to the edge of the fabric on either side. Sew along this 10cm seam, at right angles to the side seam.  Release all pins and marks. Do the same on the other corner. (You can find lots of pictures and better instructions for this point if you google "sew box corners").
4. Fold one top edge in half, seam to seam so you find the middle, and mark with a pin. Unfold. Measure down approximately 1 1/2 cm from the edge at that mid point and mark this spot (tailor's pencil, small tacked thread in contrast colour, just pin it - you choose). Measure down another 1 1/2 cm and mark this point. Sew a button hole between the two points you just marked. So you have a button hole in the middle of one side, centred about 2 - 2 1/2 cm from the loose edge.
5. Fold down the top of the bag all around. Fold first 1/2 cm, then fold again another 1 1/2 cm. Top stitch along the edge, a couple of mm from the edge. 
6. Take a piece of webbing approximately 24cm long and fold in one end twice. In total, you are folding in about 4cm, so the first fold will be about 1,9cm and the second about 2,1cm. Pin. Fold the other end the same. Carefully pin the webbing along the side seam. The bottom end should sit around 1mm from the box corner seam. Lay the webbing flat against the side seam then pull the top end back towards the bottom of the bag a couple of mm, so that it has a little slack to fit your fingers under and doesn't sit too tight against the bag when it is stuffed full. Sew the webbing to the bag. I sewed a square around the folded end, and a cross across the middle of this square. Do the same on the other end with another piece of webbing.
7. Thread your cord through the seam you sewed around the top of the bag, using a bodkin or safety pin. Enter and exit through the buttonhole. Thread your cord lock onto your cord, and tie big knots in the ends of your cord so the cord lock can't slide off.

You're finished!

As normal, I forgot or didn't think to take progress photos, so I hope these written instructions make sense. It sounds way more complicated than it actually was, written down like this. 

This is just the quick pattern I came up with in which to store our baby carrier, and it works for us. Obviously, many other bag patterns would work to shove a baby carrier in.