Purse + Diaper Bag = Mommy Bag

Since GBaby arrived, leaving the house has become a challenge of juggling all the "stuff" that has to travel with an infant and making sure that I have what I'll need while we're out.  Um, yeah - more than once I've found myself standing in front of the cashier only to realize that I didn't have my wallet and diapers and wipes weren't going to pay the bill.  Oops.

I've  juggled through an assortment of diaper bags and purses trying to make something work and nothing has worked for me yet.  Then I was talking with my Sis-in-Law and she was talking about having made a friend a diaper bag/purse combo that was engineered in such a way that they were two separate bags that could come apart so mom could take off with the purse and leave the diaper bag with the baby.  I LOVED the idea, and my brain started working.

I am not a purse person.  I do not carry a purse as an accessory of any type: I'm all about function.  My favorite purse before, GBaby arrived was my Timbuk2 Metro bag.  Functional, great size and practically indestructible.  I like the messenger style bag and the easy access pockets both inside and out.  So, for my 'purse' portion of the Mommy-Bag, these were all things that I took into account.

I hadn't yet met my dream diaper bag.  I had a tote bag that I liked the size of,  but liked the interior pockets of a different bag and the adjustable strap on a third bag.  So the diaper bag portion of the Mommy-Bag needed to have all these things.  So I started with this McCalls Pattern and tweaked it a bit and ended up with a great tote bag/diaper bag with great pockets inside and out.

Now, for the genius of the Mommy-Bag (which if I knew how to type it, would be spelled "Mome" with the pronunciation symbols over the 'o' and the 'e').  The swivel clips on the purse attach to D-rings on the strap and to D-rings on the diaper bag and the purse tucks right into an over-sized exterior pocket.  So, if GBaby and I are headed in the same direction, purse attaches to diaper bag and we're ready to roll.  If not, both easily separate to go in different directions.   I do want to add a zipper to the top of the diaper bag tote, but since I didn't have one on hand, that will wait until later.



I am so thrilled to have this out of my head and into three dimensional space.  I'm even more excited that the finished product turned out even better than I had imagined and I can't wait to load them up and try them out!