Quilted Diaper Bag

As anyone who has a baby knows, a diaper bag is a necessity.  I've been using the black freeby from the hospital- it wasn't anything exciting, but it was very functional!  Unfortunately, from much use; the plasticky lining started to come apart, and there were pieces of foam coming out.  I hated to throw it away, so instead decided to tear it apart and use it as a basic pattern!  This is terrific, by the way, as I was able to add more pockets, and change a few things i didn't like so well!  =)

I started by quilting two batik fabrics together with a layer of Warm & Natural batting.

I quilted it fairly densely, to make it more durable.  I didn't like the inside fabric as well, but they were coordinating batiks- which should be nice for wiping off the minor spots as it gets "loved". The actual color shows better in photos further down. It also had terrible creases that didn't want to iron out, I can't wait to wash it.

Then I took each of the seams apart so that I'd have a basic pattern idea.

The zipper and strap with "hardware" were in great condition, so I re-used them since this is for me.

Instead of just one pocket on the front, I made two pockets (only one ended up on the front).  One is quilted and has a strip of binding on the top, while the one for the inside is just two pieces of non-quilted fabric; to avoid excess bulk inside.

I think the stripe created from the binding gave it a nice touch, Tyler suggested that!

What it looks like now on the inside..... I used the zig-zag stitch for finishing seams instead of the serger, there were some really thick seams because of all the batting and pockets!

And the outside (front).... This looks like a very "true to color" photo on my computer.

And back.....

End pockets (there are two now, the old one had one pocket and mesh on the other end).

And I still have this 15 x 20 inch piece of quilted fabric left, not sure what that's going to end up like.  I'm thinking a small purse or wallet to match?  The zipper on my wallet is broken, so I'm going to experiement with ideas.

My inspiration, Breanna took this photo of us!

And some more.  Some of you may not completely understand the magnitude of this photo.... three small children all smiling at the camera and once..... and it took less than 10 photos to catch!

Family.... there's nothing quite like it.