RED CHRISTMAS: pretend and play diaper bag tutorial

I couldn't leave well enough alone! I had to add a little something more to the doll bassinets that I made for my girls. And I'm so glad I did. I am loving this pretend a play diaper bag. It's easy to make . . . even for someone like me. It's cute and it can be used for other things besides playing mommy. (I'll let you in on a little secret . . . I came across the method for making this by totally messing up my second doll bassinet. I ended up throwing part of that bassinet aside and starting over. Today, I pulled the part I tossed aside and decided to make it into something . . . this is what I came up with.)

Pretend and Play Diaper Bag

**Goes with matching doll bassinet carrier**

Here's what you need:
1 - 30 x 9 inch piece of fabric for the outside of the diaper bag
1 - 30 x 9 inch pieces of fabric for the inside lining of the diaper bag
1 - 30 x 9 inch pieces of quilt batting for the diaper bag
1 - 16 x 11 1/2 inch piece of fabric for the flap
1 - 8 x 11 1/2 inch piece of interfacing
1 - 28 x 4 1/2 inch piece of fabric for the strap
**I also used two extra squares for a pocket

Here's what you do:
1) Pin batting to wrong side of outside of the bag.

2) Sew long straight lines every inch down the 9 inch side. In other words, you will be sewing eight long straight lines all the way down the 30 inches of the fabric piece. (I must confess that I'm THE WORST at sewing straight lines, so I used an fade-away fabric pen that disappears after a few hours to draw straight lines on the fabric . . . LOVE IT!)

3) Fold in half right sides together so that you have a 15 x 9 inch piece. Pin. Sew along three sides leaving one long side open.

4) At one corner seam, fold piece inward so that the right sides of one of the short-sided seams and the long-sided seam touch. Pin. Measure from corner about 1 1/2 inches. Sew. Cut off corner end.

5) Do the same thing with the other corner.

6) Now, pin and sew a seam seams on each side of the bottom of the bag to create a boxy bottom.

7) Do steps 3 through 6 with the lining piece. Except when sewing around the three sides in step 3, leave a three inch opening for turning later. (See second picture down.)

8) Take 4 1/2 x 28 inch piece for strap and fold in half length-wise right sides together. Sew down to form a tube. Turn and top stitch on both long sides.

9) Pin strap to inside of quilted part of the bag.

10) Take interfacing and fuse to wrong side of one half of the flap piece of fabric. (I also added a pocket after adding interfacing.)

11) Fold flap piece in half right sides together. Sew around leaving two inch opening for turning. Trim corners, turn and top stitch around closing up opening to turn as you go.