My Newest Love : The Honeymoon Bag!

I've been thinking about the perfect bag for a while now and decided to blend the features I liked in other bags I'd seen to create my ideal bag and here is what I came up with last night: The Honeymoon Bag. Carefree, fun and made for enjoyment, much like a honeymoon (hence the name). Picky me has a lot of demands on a bag especially one that would be used as a carryall for baby stuff :

- Has to hold a lot (very small people require an obscene amount of things when on the go)
- Still be relatively reasonable in size (some diaper bags are the size of carry-on luggage)
- Make it easy to keep all the small stuff inside organized
- Stylish and cute, so I want to carry it around
- Must be pretty simple to make & very affordable (No thanks to the hipster $140 ones out there)

To make the seemingly impossible "small, but holds a lot" features happen I pleated the sides and used a rounded edge design so the bag would be expandable when filled, but still be trim in overall shape. I also used a messenger style flap so it would be easy to get things in & out, but still keep everything out of sight.

I added several interior pockets: one I left long, the one on the other side I stitched down the middle to make two smaller ones and added one to the side that had darts on the bottom for depth and elastic at the top to keep things like bottles or small odd shaped items from getting jostled around.
I was a little nervous when it was finished - it looked so small, but it can easily hold a wipes case, a couple of diapers, bottle, snack/formula container, burp cloth, bib, onesie and a few small items from my purse and I could easily find said items once in the bag, so it passed my test. I did use interfacing to make the bag sturdy, but in future bags I'll skip that since it made sewing the sides a real bear because it was so thick with all the folds. The best part is it was relatively easy to make - just 5 pieces each make up to outer & lining of the bag, plus the pockets, which took a total of less than a yd of each fabric. If one could be smitten with a bag, then it would be me and this one. I see us spending a lot of time together in the future!