Wet Bags

Yeap, I'm totally posting two days in a row.

Yesterday I mentioned sending some gifts to my friends who recently had twins and I shared with you the humorous gift I made.

Today, I'm sharing one of the more practical gifts. Homemade wet bags!

Before I had my little zucchini muffin (she gets all kinds of bizarre vegetable nicknames because it's more fun than calling her "the baby," though we do that too), I never really considered the fact that I might need to bring an extra outfit for her in case she needed to change while we were out and about. Now? Sometimes I bring two extra outfits- because you never know.

The first time I had to change her clothes, I had no idea what to do with the dirty clothes. I didn't want to put them directly into my diaper bag because they might get everything else in there dirty. So, I scrounged up an old grocery bag to use. Which made me think, "Hmm...wouldn't it be nice to have a reusable and washable bag to put this stuff in?"

The answer, is yes, it is nice. I made these bags without a pattern, just kind of winged it. I based the shape on the brown paper lunch bags I used to carry to school- but a little larger. The bags are lined with washable rip-stop nylon and have velcro closures. You can see the lining in the inset photo above.

These are my new favorite baby gift. They're super quick and easy to make and the materials aren't at all expensive. They use about a half yard of fabric each (with some to spare- just in case of mistakes) and a little bit of velcro.

Purse

(click image to enlarge)

While we're on the theme of sewing and homemade gifts, I made this purse for my Sister-in-Law's birthday. I have made bags for myself in the past, but never anything from a pattern and never anything really structured, per say.

This is a Simplicity Sewing for Dummies Pattern (4178), but let me tell you- the instructions are confusing as all get out. I did just fine sewing the outer fabric to the interfacing, and even sewing the lining on to those pieces. Once it got to the section where you started sewing the two halves of the bag together all hell broke loose.

It probably didn't help matters that I decided to ammend the pattern (this seems to be where most of my sewing issues start). The pattern called for a large snap closure (optional) and I thought that a zipper was more appropriate given the size of the bag (this thing is HUGE). Although I'd never sewn a zipper onto anything before I didn't think it would be that confusing or difficult.

I know what you're thinking, it's the zipper that threw me off. And actually, it really isn't. I got the zipper on just fine (even added an inside pocket with no issues- once again, not in the original pattern). The directions on how to add the strap to the purse might as well have been written in sanskrit. Even after assembling the purse (making up the strap directions myself), I still haven't a clue what they were saying.

Overall, I'm pleased with how this came out. I made myself a smaller version (the pattern has three sizes), and I think improved on it even more. Plus, I learned to sew darts using this pattern. That's a useful skill.

(Thank you to my Husband for hand modeling)