Crossover Diaper Bag Tutorial

I have had requests for the tutorial of the bag I finished over the weekend. Click here: Crossover Diaper Bag Tutorial and you should find it I hope! It is a PDF document, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to open it. It is very image heavy, so give it some time to download. I think (hope!) it makes sense. I tried not to leave out even the littlest of steps.

This is a larger picture of the pattern than the PDF shows. It's still hard to see what I wrote, though. If you right click and save it to your computer, you can zoom in some with a photo imaging program. It's all in the tutorial, I just thought it might helpful for those of us that are visual learners to see a picture!


This is a good stash reduction project as it uses nearly 4 yards of fabric. For the one I made, I used 2 yards of 1 fabric and 1 yard of 2 fabrics. One of the best things about making bags is that they don't have to "fit" per se. If your fabric is a little shorter or narrow, make the bag a little shorter or narrower or not as deep.

Enjoy using the directions for your own personal use and charity purposes, but please do not sell the bags you make.

Enjoy!

Crossover Diaper Bag

I finished my crossover diaper bag. I made it larger than the test piece I posted the other day. It's about 19"wide, 15" high (not including handle) and 5" deep. It's also lined which makes for bulky seam allowances, but I think it turned out nice. I hope to make a bunch of these for the monthly projects of the yahoo group All Crafts for Charity and reduce my stash at the same time. Although it seems I keep buying more fabric with these bags in mind! :)

This the front:


This is the back. I thought it would be fun to mix fabrics.


Here it is filled with lots of stuff. Boy it will hold a lot! A blanket, changes of clothes, diapers & wipes...it'll all fit.


And, it will even stay somewhat organized thanks to the three inside pockets!


I love it! It would even make a good crafting bag for knitters and crocheters. I have a tutorial written. I'll be posting it somewhere soon.

Snow

We had snow all day yesterday and into the wee hours this morning. The kids can't wait to go outside and play, but they are disappointed that the snow kept Daddy from making to home for the weekend. Here are a few pictures of the snow. It's hard to say how much we have as some places there's a lot and other places there's not.









Now off to eat some breakfast and break out the shovel and snow blower!

St. Patrick's Sewing

My daughter is still at the age where she likes Mommy to make her a dress for the holidays. I offered to make one for St. Patrick's Day and she jumped at the offer. She picked the fabric out on Saturday at Joann Fabrics. I thought I had some green at home for the bodice, but a trip to Wal-Mart before I even checked my stash netted a perfect green polo on clearance.

The colors are much brighter than they appear. Of course, if you have a new dress, you need a new bag. I got busy making one that will be her new lunch bag. She's really rough on lunch bags and backpacks (she's on her 4th backpack this school year!) and has been carrying her lunch in plastic grocery bags for about a month. Today she had a cute one from The Children's Place and she actually brought it home to reuse. I was able to cut out a bag (no pattern...I made it up on the fly based on the size of the scraps I had left and the size I thought the finished bag should be) while visiting my folks today. I even interlined it with some canvas Mom had leftover from another project. This is the first time I've used the canvas interlining and I think it's a great technique. Here it is:



Cute, huh? I even put a zippered pocket inside for milk money when I'm out of drinks. I had thought the zipper application through and was happy when I came home and a search at http://www.craftster.org/ came up with the same method.



Here's the whole ensemble that a happy 2nd grader will get to use tomorrow:


Now, if the weatherman wasn't predicting 4-8 inches of snow we'd be all set! She was balking at the idea of needing to wear leggings and dress boots with this.

Update: There is a little snow and freezing rain outside with much more snow on the way. That all translates to a school cancellation....much to a certain girl's disappointment. It kind of makes Mommy feel good that the snow day was met with jeers, not cheers! The boys have planned a Veggie Tales movie day since it was going to be movie night anyway.

My Crossover Bag

I love sewing bags! Here's my latest:



I fashioned this after Four Corner Designs The X Bag. I've never seen the pattern except for photos of the cover on the web, so I have no idea if my way is the way they make their bag. This was a test so it is not lined. I wasn't sure if it would work like I thought and didn't want to waste the effort of lining it. I am happy with the results and plan to modify the pattern just a bit so the bag is wider. Then I can make a slew as diaper bags for charity. I definitely have the stash for it!


This is an attempt to show the 3 pockets made by the crossover.


I finished the raw edges and seam allowances with pink FOE (fold-over elastic). I love that stuff!

I look forward to tweaking the pattern and sewing these up.

Something to Blog About

As you can see, I haven't been a very good blogger. I hope to post more often, but only time will tell. With raising 4 children, a hubby with new job, and working part-time myself, I sometimes find it hard to find crafting time, let alone blogging time!


Anyway...

Look at the handsome critter we came home to when we walked home from the bus stop...we weren't sure what it was. It looked just like a tree stump between the plum tree and Asian pear tree, a tree stump that wasn't supposed to be there.

Is it a cat? A guinea hen? Hmmm...what *is* it?

Hmmm... it looks like an owl? Can it be an owl????

Sure enough, it was!! We were extremely delighted to see this great horned owl. Apparently he was just taking a rest as he was gone later.