Denim bag for an umbrella stroller

Stroller carry and gate check bag

Sure, you can buy a stroller gate-check bag for $15, or a carry bag for $20. I chose to repourpose a denim shirtdress for the occasion, giving the final product a button closure, pintuck and pocket detailing, shoulder and piggyback straps to attach onto another pack with a carabeaner or short length of rope.

Trek on down to your nearest resale shop, I found this at Goodwill for about $5, or if you are one of the many women with one in their closet, simply dig it out. The dress this project uses is a size medium, but a large would solve some of my difficulties related to the size.

Measure your stroller at the widest point, this stroller is widest where the wheels fold near the handle, and is about 26" circumference at this point. The length is 42". The bag shall have a square bottom 7" by 7", and an overall length of 44". It is good practice to measure and pin a strip of muslin the circumference of the finished piece and pass the stroller though, ensuring the bag will fit. When in doubt, measure twice before cutting and round up - removing material is far easier than adding.

This dress has some nice details on the front (pintuck, pockets, and a row of buttons that will serve as the bag fasteners) which will be kept for the bag. Therefore, the front will supply 16 inches and the back will supply 12 inches of the final exterior. Your dress may differ, or you may choose to omit some of the details.



Carefully remove any seams or darts that are in the fabric and either rip or cut out seams that must be separated. Measure out front and back and cut the pieces for the long sides of the tube.

This is where the medium size encountered the first problem, the sleeves were not large enough to cut the end squares, so those had to be removed from the back shoulder area. This removed several inches from the length and the sleeve ended up being attached to help create the top, with the curved portion matching up with the neckline and the straight edge along the rear to make up for the missing length.

The loops are all sewn tubes of denim, about 4 inches cut width, a 1/4" seam, resulting in a loop about 1.5" wide after turning and pressing. The piggyback loops are essentially big belt loops, while the shoulder strap is long enough to slip an arm through for carrying. For ease of design, some of the loops are stitched from the long shoulder strap.

The bottom of the bag is a 8" square, leaving half inch seam allowances on all sides, for a 7" finished size. This is plenty of room for the bottom wheels, and could easily have extra storage room.

The top is made from one of the sleeves, attached to the neckline after remsving the collar. The sleeve is then attached along the armholes in front, and the flat part of the sleeve is carried over and topstitched to the back panel, just above the shoulder loop. This creates a y-shaped seam in the upper part.

Before stitching, pin the seams together and double check the fit periodically. Ripping out seams is time-consuming and rather annoying. Most of the seams have been serged (pine-leaf stitch on the sewing machine, and trimmed to 1/4" seam. Any topstitching was created in gold thread to compliment the jeans. Where possible, topstitching follows an existing line on the jeans.

The final touch is a snap to hold the shoulder strap to the bag while not in use. This will help keep the strap from snagging on things as it is loaded into the aircraft.

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