Goody Bag For Baby

I am sewing a lot for the shop these days, with the hopes of helping to send my kids to the school that we love for the next school year. I am focusing on baby stuff, and it's fun to make things for little people. I thought I would blog about the process of this current work-in-progress. I have a basic idea of what I want it to be, but the end result will be a surprise to us all. =)

 Part 1: A tote bag. I want this to be smaller than the others I've made. I want it to hold baby stuff. Easy for a parent to carry around and carry a few necessities. I decided to base this tote on the excellent KeykaLou grocery tote pattern. This one will be smaller, with longer straps. I have some fabric that I like, and a coordinating lining fabric, left over from another project. I will see what I can do with what's left of these fabrics. Here I'm cutting out straps.

 Sewing the straps...

 Making the tote lining...

 Shell is done, straps are sewn on.

 The tote is done. I love how it came out. The size is just what I was hoping for, and the straps are just right, too.

The lining. I'm very pleased with Part 1 of this project. =) On to Part 2.

 I am playing with the idea of a strap to attach to the tote. Something to hold a paci, or a toy. Something to keep baby happy while being changed, or as needed. I decided to put both fabrics in the strap.

 Oops. Forgot to crop this one! I sewed a small bit of the lining fabric on each end of the strap piece.

 All done. Just needs a way to attach to the tote. I waffled between velcro and snaps, but I decided to go with snaps.












Here it is, waiting for a toy. =)

 This is the only hanging toy left in my house! No more babies around here, so nothing to use as props! But this will do. You get the idea.

I like that the strap can hang outside of the bag or inside.

So Part 2 is done! On to part 3!

 Starting Part 3. I have ideas in my head of what I want to make, but I wing it when the time comes regarding sizes and shapes. I held my hands out in front of me with about the size I wanted this part to be, and measured that against my yard stick. I came up with 15" x 25". This photo is horrible. It does not show the right colors at all. But here I am using one fabric piece to cut out another the same size.

 I brought a swatch of fabric with me to JoAnn's earlier today to get some good coordinates. This was made from flannel, brown and light green, to match the tote.











It's a changing mat! It's designed to basically cover the changing tables in public restrooms, to keep baby away from the icky table. But obviously it could be used anywhere.

 Pretty good match, right?

 Starting to stuff the goody bag! =)

 Now I'm making a diaper/accessory pouch to go with the set. I wanted to coordinate, but it can be hard to find coordinating fabric to match something you've had in your stash for a while. I found this dot fabric at JoAnn's. It matches perfectly. I might have preferred something other than the off-white/yellowish color for the background, but beggars can't be choosers. This is from the same fabric line, and it's the best I'm going to do. So, dots for the outside, brown for the lining.

 A little interfacing will give the pouch some body.

 I'm in a snappy kinda mood these days. Vecro is nice, but snaps are fun! =) Pale green matches the tote.

 One of the instructions in the KeyKaLou grocery tote pattern is to double stitch the top of bag to reinforce. I love that, and use it often in my sewing.
























 Looking good so far. But we need one more thing to go along with the tote, the strap, the changing pad and the diaper/accessory pouch.

Flannel wipes! I used the same flannel that I used for the changing mat. I don't coordinate my outfits this well! Yikes. Anyhow, now this set feels complete! Ready for baby. =)