Einstein, Watson and Crick Walk Into a Post Office...

Last week my oldest friend (in length of time as friends, not age--we met in dance class when we were four. Well...she was in dance class, I was in stomp around gracelessly class) gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. At her baby shower we were chatting and her mother said "Do you know you didn't ask for a diaper bag on your registry?" To which she responded "I know. I'm asking Bethany to make me one right now." Her husband is a nuclear engineer (when I first met him I felt really witty with my "C'mon, it's not nuclear physics" quip but, as with most engineers, he was just like "Mmm hmm, OK"and didn't find me hysterical, which is how my dad the engineer responds to me, too) and wanted to make sure the diaper bag was not going to be overly babyish. Sports was tossed out as an idea, and they jokingly said "Do they have fabric with atoms on it?" I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that yes indeed, there is geeky science fabric available. After nailing down the details and getting the fabric, I got busy. I enjoyed every minute of making this. Truly.

That fabric matching on the front pocket there was pure accident. I don't think I could have done that if I tried, but it looks like I really meant it. I was a little nervous ordering the green online as sometimes things look way different and don't match in reality, but this was spot on. I did my usual elastic pockets on the sides, but didn't realize my photo was a little blurry until about ten minutes ago.

The inside fabric is just as adorable, and is an assortment of random geekery--equations, symbols, binary code, bowties and glasses.

I usually do a tie closure for diaper bags, but did a zipper this time. I had bought a small supply of purse-sized zippers to have on hand for larger bags. It was nice not to have to switch out the zip pull for a larger one and to have a little extra width to work with for the casing.

The zipper casing is nice and wide so if the bag is stuffed the zipper won't bust, and if it's not so stuffed it'll sit down a little bit. I love how that double helix worked out around the zipper, kind of creating its own pattern. I had my fingers crossed with the fabric cutting for this one as I had just enough. I had a little square left over after some gusset trimming, and I'll hold onto that for the quilt I need to get back to.

I finished this the day she had the baby and mailed it out on Friday. I asked for Monday delivery. It just got there today. It went kind of west, slightly east from there, out for delivery in the wrong town, way further west, then waaaaaay east, then back west, then finally to its destination. I tracked this thing like a bounty hunter because if they lost it I was going to lose it. Every day when it showed up nowhere really near where it was supposed to be when it was supposed to be there I would quietly rage "THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE NO MONEY, POST OFFICE! THIS IS WHY PEOPLE SHIP UPS! YOU HAD ONE THING TO DO! I COULD HAVE WALKED IT TO HER BY NOW! TWICE!" So I was quite relieved when I saw it made it safe and sound. I've said it before and I stand by it: my photo must be hanging in the post office with a note that says "Lose anything she ships and receive a pay bonus!" Because every time.

This is definitely one of my favorite diaper bags out of the many I've made at this point. So different, so fun. I'm pretty sure nobody else is going to have an atomic diaper bag. And sometimes an atomic diaper bag is necessary for the atomic bombs those wee little things can drop.