Baby bags

Hello, me again!

Today I thought I'd show you a couple of baby bags I made a couple of years ago.  My son and daughter-in-law were expecting their first baby and I wanted to make some things for my seventh grandchild!!  So I decided to make a baby bag.  They did not know the sex of the baby and they have a chocolate labrador dog. I thought it would be nice to have something non-babyish and my son probably wouldn't want to be seen walking around with a fussy baby bag.  So when I saw this material I thought it was perfect.  

The pattern I used was an adaptation from a bag pattern my friend Lynn had kindly let me use.  I had made myself a couple of bags previously using this pattern but they never came out exactly as I wanted.  However, this one I was very pleased with.

The dog material was in a thick cotton, which I thought would make a harder-wearing bag and I used beige spotted cotton to line the bag and dark brown bias binding to make a contrast between the pocket and main part of the bag.  I put in plenty of pockets both outside and inside and filled them up with bottles, nappies and baby things.  It looked rather good.

Emma and Nick seemed over the moon with the bag when I gave it to them.  I was so pleased.  Emma showed it to some of her friends and one of them, Charlotte who was also expecting a baby, asked me to make her one!  She didn't know the sex of the baby either and wanted stars on the fabric.  I don't often take commissions so I was a bit wary of agreeing to do it, but hey ho why not?

I searched around everywhere and eventually found some material we both liked - grey with white stars.  I used grey with small dots for the lining.   However when the materials arrived I was a bit disappointed to see they were both cotton, which would not be as hard-wearing.  I put some wadding in between the main fabric and lining to add a bit more weight to the bag.
I used white bias binding as a contrast and to lighten the whole effect, which I think worked very well.

The bag didn't turn out quite as well as Emma's I didn't think, but Charlotte seemed very pleased with it, and I don't think she was being polite!

It's not the same making things for people you don't really know, and I found it a bit stressful, but it was a nice compliment that someone wanted me to make something for them.

I also made some other bits to go with the bags, which I will blog later.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x