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.

Reversible tote with tie handles

I put together this tote for a present for a friend in hospital. I filled it with bits and pieces that would hopefully be fun for someone who was bed-bound, and let the bag be the wrapping and present in one!

It has patch pockets on both sides, so one inside and one outside pocket. It is fully reversible, just pull it inside-out depending on which side you want to show.

I made the handles four individual straps, so it can be tied to anything to hold it up.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Daycare fabric box and bag

Daycare fabric box and bag

(Note: I drafted this post back in September [2012]. Everything but putting the pictures into the right places. And then went back to work. And it has been sitting here in draft form ever since... But here it is, a little out of date with it's time references, but here nevertheless).

My little boy has just started daycare, and all the children have a shelf to keep their spare clothes and other bits and pieces on. I wanted to make him a fabric box that was personalised, and would keep all his things together (as much as possible...).

Being me, this supposedly simple project got more and more complicated as time went on. Having bought the wrong size zip, I decided to use that to make an expandable bag, matching the box, to carry the things we need to take back and forth each day. Somewhere to put all the things that "we need to remember to take to daycare tomorrow". And that project went from simple to complicated, in the way that things do...

Anyway, I finally finished them! Just in time as I have to go back to work on Monday. Not sure how I feel about that, these months of maternity leave have been lovely.

I was going to note how I made these, and maybe put up a tutorial for others. For the box, all I can say to anyone else who wants to make one like this is: DON'T! Or at least not the way I did. It was really fiddly and much more complicated that I had imagined. I'm really happy with the result, but I won't be making another any time soon! For the bag... the progress photos didn't happen, and I'm not sure I can be bothered writing up all the directions. If a few people ask for it I might reconsider, but in the meantime, they are finished to be admired. :)  [NOTE January 2013: It's been so long now, I don't think I can remember how I made it. So no tutorial will be available I'm afraid.]

Here is the box. It is fully fabric lined, and the original (unphotoshopped) version has my son's name appliqued on the lid. At least the short form, his whole name has too many letters!

Here is the bag. All zipped up it looks like this:

Inside it looks like this, with one inside zip pocket.

And the probably-totally-unnecessary-added-complication element is that if you unzip around the three outer sides, it expands to a bigger bag!

One daycare storage box, and one back-and-forth bag.

New baby change bag

A few weeks ago I finished our new change bag. I think it is way nicer than anything I've seen available to buy.

I followed a pattern by Åsa Sandblad (in Swedish) that I bought at Tyger och Ting, where I also got the fabric; but of course since I'm incapable of just following a pattern, I adjusted it a bit.

My version is one and a half times as wide as the original, and has only three fabrics, instead of the suggested four.

The pattern doesn't specify how to make the internal pockets; I put in one zip pocket across the whole width on the back lining. I thought about (tried) a patch pocket inside the flap, but since I'm not capable of making a good looking patch pocket with no open edges inside, I gave up that idea.

I put a loop inside one side seam of the lining that I can hook my keys on, and a clip buckle to hold down the flap (as it's always overfull).

I also put in loops on the top seam outside the shoulder strap, and made extra straps to hold it to the pram handles.





When I was done I whipped up a couple of pouches for inside, with the fabric I had left over.

They've each got two zip pockets; I use one for nappy change things and the other has a change of clothes, some emergency toys and the pegs I use to hold blankets over the pram.

Overall I'm really happy with this new bag. It is a bit small to fit in everything I need to take with me. I can squeeze in a bit of food, but for a long day needing several meals and snacks, I need a separate bag for my LO's food.

And it's not remotely waterproof, which is really tempting fate. I wonder if there is any spray I can use to make it slightly more water repellent?

If I were to start again, knowing then what I know now, I would probably make it a smidgeon bigger, in all directions. I would definitely make the side pocket bigger, as that's too narrow for any sort of bottle, and not very useful as it is now. I would put the clip buckle in as I was making the flap/outer, instead of sewing it on after the fact, and I would put much more reinforcing in the loops that it hangs from on the pram. So far they're holding, but they are pretty thin and might not last as long as I hope they will.

So there you have it. Our one-of-a-kind change bag.

P.S. There's a picture of the original design on this blog post.