I made myself a new bag! I’ve been lugging round a ginormous bag for the last year which was filled with wet wipes, nappies, changes of clothes, snacks and drinks and everything else one needs when looking after a small child. Master called the bag “the bag from hell” and I suppose he was right. Everything ended up somewhere on the bottom of it or ended up in the big black hole never to be seen again. As Little Miss Bossy-Boots is now out of nappies and I don’t really need to bring spare clothes anymore I decided that a smaller bag was called for. Add to this the fact that I was going home to Switzerland for eight days (hence the non-blogging) and didn’t want to carry the monster bag around arouanymore and you get a very strong incentive to make a new, smaller bag. As I didn’t have much time before travelling, I decided to go for a really simple design I have sewn lots of times. The fabric, however, is a little bit special and very, very practical: rucksack fabric. It’s waterproof, very light and, best of all, comes in lots of fun colours. I chose a lovely turquoise for my bag and I love it.

As you can see I added a big pocket to the front of the bag with a flap to keep things in there a bit safer and drier. It’s fully lined in the same IKEA fabric I used to line the bag. I love this fabric as it’s so summery.

Now in hind sight I wish I had put a flap on the top of my bag as well. I didn’t because I thought that it is a summer bag which doesn’t end up in the rain too often (how wrong was I?) and therefore simply inserted a zip at the top.

I decided to have pockets galore in this bag in the hope that it would be more organised and less “hellish” for Master if he ever has to find something in it. There’s palace for everything now: wallet, pen, mobile phone, plasters and antiseptic, camera and snacks. The wet wipes go in the bottom with a pair of knickers and leggings for Little Miss Bossy-Boots (just in case). The key is attached to a key fob and can easily be found and used while still attached to the fob which means I’m not hunting for my key anymore as I know it’s in bag.

I’ve used it for a bit over a week now and I can say that I absolutely love it. The size is great as I can still get a few things in there when I go shopping but without them disappearing without a trace. I also don’t have to take everything out to find smaller items that have buried themselves at the bottom of the bag.

However, there are two things I don’t like. First, as mentioned before, I wish I had put a flap over the top opening. Nothing has gotten wet yet but with the miserable weather we have had this summer it would prolong this bag’s season into autumn. Now I will have to make another bag for autumn, winter. Oh, that is terrible… Second, I re-used the black strap from my old bag for this one but I feel it’s just too harsh. I bought some red webbing in Switzerland but have to get the right hardware before I can change the strap. The black strap will simply be re-cycled when I finish my autumn/winter bag later this year.

My sister loved the look of my bag and ordered a similar one. I will, however, put a flap on hers so that she can use it all year round.