Still making baby presents, though this is for a different baby. ;) A friend from grad school is expecting her first baby, a girl. While I wouldn't mind making her a diaper bag, I'm concerned that I really don't know her taste well enough to invest the time/money in a bag that she may dislike but can't exchange. Instead, I decided to make her a diaper clutch, which is available as a free tutorial/pattern from A Beginner's Needle.
It's an ingenious idea - a small diaper bag, just big enough for the bare necessities for a short outing, with an attached changing pad. If I'd known about this when my monsters were in diapers, I'd have probably made one for myself! I thought this was so cool that I cut two out at once - though I've only sewn one up so far....
I used a pretty cotton print from my stash as the outer fabric and interfaced it with a relatively stiff interfacing. The lining is a white PUL from JAF, originally intended to become wetbags for my cousin, but I hadn't cut or stitched those yet, so....I'll get more PUL later! This is the closed version, with a hard travel wipes case and two T5 pullups in the pocket. I did change the closure from the recommended velcro to snaps. Here, I've used two snaps, though I'm thinking about doing four (in two rows) in the future, to make it more adjustable for when the pocket is more or less stuffed. We'll see....
And this is the clutch partly (mostly) open. It's so long that I decided to photograph it like this, rather than trying to find something else to stand on so that I could get the entire piece in one picture. Yes, I'm lazy....Anyway, you can see that the pocket is fairly substantial. Even with the wipes case and two T5 pullups in it, I still would have had room for a wetbag and a tube of diaper cream or something similar in it. (For those who cloth diaper, I think you could get at least one diaper, a few cloth wipes, a wet bag, and some diaper cream in there, assuming that it's packed carefully and not haphazardly crammed in.) There is fusible fleece in the center of the changing pad, which should aid in baby's comfort during changes. The outer thirds of the changing pad fold in, before the pad is folded up from the bottom to then go over the pocket. The top flap comes down to fasten it closed.
This really is a pretty cool idea! I was pretty pleased with it when I got it finished last night. And I showed it to my DH, who really liked it! (The man is not stingy with compliments, but he doesn't exactly throw them around, either. So when he says something is a really good idea, he means it!) Useful and practical, yet pretty. And of course it's machine washable, which is even better!.
Anyway, I would totally make this again. I need more PUL before I can make the next one, but once I get it, I'll make the next one for my cousin (as well as her wetbags). And then I want to make at least one more, for another pregnant cousin. After that, I'll keep it in mind as more friends get pregnant....
