The Homemade Nursery: One-of-a-kind Diaper Bag

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room.  

As a general rule, I am not a fan of diaper bags.  I find that they all look the same, and are never very attractive, even the ones that are supposed to be trendy or modern.  I decided to try my hand at making a diaper bag, as I have more than enough fabric building up in my stash to put together something I would find appealing.  

I started with this Hello, Bear print, and built the rest of the bag around it.  

I had some leftover Essex linen from another project, and a gorgeous orangey woodgrain to use for the lining.  

Supplies gathered - the arrows didn't end up getting used

I decided on the Supertote pattern by Noodlehead, and it was absolutely fabulous.  The instructions are so clearly written, and I learned a few new techniques entirely from the pattern.  I often find patterns include instructions that require further googling to understand fully, but not this one.  You can't go wrong with it.  I am super impressed with myself for executing such a professional looking bag, and honestly it is thanks to the fantastic pattern.  

The front, with piping and a magnetic snap pocket

The back, with quilt-as-you-go panel

The bag itself is really nice.  It has a magnetic snap front pocket, and two elasticized pockets on the inside.  It is fully lined, quite roomy, and very sturdy.  I used a quilt-as-you-go method to make the front pocket and back panel to give it a little more pizzaz, and I am happy with how it turned out.  

The inside stocked with a few supplies.  Also featured: inset zipper!

I included a little "handmade" tag, because I like to brag celebrate a homemade creation. 

Homemade anything is better than store bought everything.

I am pretty excited to put this bag into use! Baby can get here anytime, as the bag is packed and ready to head to the hospital.