Nursery Sewing - Wet Bag

I have been keeping busy with lots of sewing for the nursery, and I haven't had time to share any of it.

One of my biggest projects was a large wet bag for the cloth diapers we'll be using.  This one is specifically for the nursery and was inspired by this one which was made using this tutorial.  I didn't really end up using the tutorial, since I had a few different requirements for my wet bag. 

Here's the finished product so you can see what I am talking about.

I wanted a wet bag that could hang from various locations including this closet door, the regular door, and possibly on the side of our dresser.  I sized it accordingly, and based on the 18 inch zipper I bought.  The inspiration bag actually zips at the top, but I didn't want the handle getting in the way of putting things into the bag, so I made the zipper on mine several inches from the top of the bag. That was a little bit tricky, but I worked it out.

Probably the hardest part was the fabric, which I love, but has a straight line pattern, which wasn't straight any more after the fabric was washed and dried.  I had to decide whether to cut the fabric square (which would mean the fabric would always look crooked), or cut the fabric based on the fabric pattern (which would mean the bag wouldn't actually be square).  I went with cutting based on the pattern and it worked out fairly well.  It isn't wonky enough to be noticeable, but I feel like if I had cut the fabric square, the bag would have looked wonky.

I was really worried about just cutting into my nice fabric to make the bag, so I made a small version first testing out all the necessary tweaks and techniques.  It was totally worth it and I felt a lot more confident when it came time to start the large bag.

In case it's not obviously, since this is a wet bag, it is lined with PUL.  The PUL was sewn basically in a separate bag so that fluids (etc.) don't wick in between it and the patterned fabric.  There are lots of sites out there talking about PUL and how to use it in cloth diapering and wet bags.  I was thankful that I had read somewhere to use parchment paper on top of the PUL and underneith the zipper foot when sewing.  If I didn't use parchment paper (which can easily be ripped off after you finish sewing), the PUL would get stuck and became all bunchy.  Not good!