Nappy Bag

I have a friend that is prego with number 3 and after number 2 she sold all of her baby stuff.  Not only am I completely excited for her to be having a new bb, but I also wanted to help her out in the most stylish way that I can.  So I made her a diaper bag.... and not just any diaper bag!!!

I was pricing fabric and the pattern for this bag uses a TON of fabric so it was going to be like $45 for the fabric alone!!  I am reluctant to spend $45 on anything so imagine how excited I was to find a 100% cotton shower curtain from Urban Outfitters for $13.99 with the exact amount of fabric?!?!?!?!  The minute I saw it I just knew that it would be P.E.R.F.E.C.T.  Here is the shower curtain:

It is a cream color cotton with a green funky/hand drawn looking pattern on it.  There are over-printed aqua and navy flowers in one of the corners.  The aqua is transparent so you can see the green pattern showing through.   

I loved how the flowers were just in one corner of the curtain... I used the floral sections for the outside of the bag and the rest for the inside.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it turned out... even better then the original fabric that I was looking at.  I am totally jealous :-)

Side A

Side B

This gives you a good idea of how big this bag is and a little more understanding of how it took the WHOLE shower curtain to make this bag.

The inside

And because I am a complete over-achiever, I embroidered a linen tag for the inside with the care instructions.  :-)

The tag :-)

This was the Amy Butler pattern for the Nappy Bag. 

If you know me or have read some of my older posts, you know that I LOVE this bag.  Does this look familiar? :-)

This is a really simple bag to make that is a great gift for the expecting mom.  The recipient of the "Urban Outfitter-shower-curtain-bag" isn't far along enough to know what she is having but I thought that this was a great fabric either way.  It is girly with flowers but is blue and green... so if she has a boy then she won't feel as guilty as if she would by carrying a pink diaper bag.  Not to mention that she doesn't even have to use this as a diaper bag, it's not like it looks like a diaper bag.  In the diaperless months between my 2 boys, I used this as just a purse and loved it.

As much as I LOVE this pattern, I have to tell you that I made a few alterations.  The 1st alteration I did when making my nappy bag for the 1st time....  I don't like the HUGE points at the bottom corners of the bag (see the pattern cover above), so I miter them on the inside so that it sits flat and is squared off (see the pic directly above to see square bottom).  The second alteration is that she has you sew in "bottle pockets" on the inside of the bag on each of the ends.  They pockets are o.k. but what I have learned from using mine is that those bottle pockets aren't really that great and by sewing in those 2 pockets, it renders 4 other pockets useless.  The original pattern also has you put in a small cell phone pocket on the strap.  With cell phones being all different sizes, there's no telling if the recipient can use the pocket for her cell phone and if you have a gummy case around the phone, it will not slide in and out of the pocket at all.  But with 6 HUGE pockets on the inside, I don't think that the cell phone pocket will be missed.

The best thing about this pattern is that the bag fits perfectly on the back of the stroller!!!  I think that Amy Butler was a genius making this pattern and it will continually be one of my favorite gifts for the new or expecting mom. 

PS.  This great fabric find has definitely taught me to think outside the box when buying fabric for sewing projects.  Not only do cloth shower curtains make good usable fabric, but you can use sheets, curtains, table cloths... you name it! The possibilities are endless!!

PSS.  The store that I work at on the weekends is moving..  just 4 doors down.  We have been packing and moving stuff down to the new store all day today and Anni, our store cat was a little lost.  She found her way to her favorite place, though.  I couldn't resist posting this cute picture.  Happy sewing!