Changing mat to diaper bag!

Here's the main reason why my blog has been a little quiet this spring and summer. Talk about a project that ballooned into something much, much bigger than first expected! And after all that work, I didn't even get any decent shots of the crisply ironed thing before giving it away. When I managed to get a hold of it again, it had already been put to good use for a couple of weeks... So here it is, in all its wrinkly goodness, a changing mat that folds in on itself to become a diaper bag!
-
My SIL asked me very nicely if I would like to make one of these for her daughter, my first niece. How could I refuse? The only problem was, I couldn't find any recipes or detailed photos anywhere, even the great internet came up empty-handed. Say what now?? Oh well, I can't resist a good puzzle anyway. So I started designing one myself, and this is what I ended up with.
-

The side panels with the pockets fold in from each side - note the pockets stuffed full of tiny diapers and wet wipes...
-

Completely folded up, it looks like this. A little ironing accident left me with just small pieces of fabric for the closing flap, so it looks tiny on this large bag... Oops. In fact, the bag is full of these little mishaps, and my relatively poor sewing skills are evident lots of places. But it's made with love! And considering my minimal sewing experience, I'm more than happy with the result.

-

A little D-ring holds a couple of clasps that can hold for example a keyring and a strap with velcro attatchment for an extra pacifier, like here, or anything really. Just a little detail I thought might be nice. The middle section covered in this medium brown fabric, where the baby is actually lying, has an extra layer of batting as well as a water-proof sheet - just in case of little accidents. ;)

-

The two bottom pockets on either side has zippers, the other two are open. The construction of this part of the bag was truly a labour of love. I had pages and pages and pages of notes and hand drawn cross section schematics of all the layers that had to be combined at this point. The fabric and batting layers of the main section had to connect to the pocket lining and side panels, as well as the zippers and bias tape - an preferably look okay as well. Quite a tall order. Imagine my satisfaction when I found a solution to do all that in three seams! Not such an achievement for an experienced seamstress, but I took it as a great victory. :)

-

Before sewing in the zippers I gave them a little end piece made from the flowery fabric. A little detail, originally intended to simply prevent the zipper pull from coming off, that turned out to have the added benefit of creating a convenient, elegant and sturdy finish between the zippered pockets and the open ones. That cute lining fabric reminds me of soap bubbles - but as it had a slightly yellow tinge that crashed with the other fabrics, it had to be slightly hidden, as pocket lining.

-

To prevent the side panels from sagging out to the sides when the bag is closed, I attatched large snaps in the corners. They do the trick quite nicely. Due to all the layers and the frequent transitions from few layers to many, I couldn't machine sew the bias tape on from both sides as I wanted to, it looked just awful. The only solution was to rip out everything, machine sew the outside, and hand sew the bias tape on the inside. Not as sturdy, but looking much better than the first attempt.

-

The handles are simply sewn on to the outside of the bag. I had originally intended to make one adjustable strap, but I think deciding on two straps was the better choice. Also, you can see that I added a large ric rac ribbon under the bias tape on the outside of the bag. Unfortunately, most of it is hidden when the bag is folded, but this detail made a great difference! The flap holds the bag closed with two large snaps. And that's it really! Thanks for the order, dear SIL, I loved the challenge! But nobody can get me to make another one, haha. ;)