Walker Bag

Front of walker bag

     A few months ago my mom had to have total knee replacement.  She needed to get a new walker for rehab and thus needed a new walker bag.  She wanted something cheerful and not seasonal.  Her favorite color is yellow and she chose a butterfly for the design.  I decided to add her initial to the other front pocket.

Back pockets

     I measured her walker and we determined how big the bag should be overall.  She needed a pocket to take papers with her and another pocket to carry her phone.  I was hoping to be able to put a water bottle in the other front pocket but it turned out not quite big enough.

Measuring binding for the edge

     I wanted to keep this as simple as possible since I was busy with lots of other things.  The bag itself is just one piece of a heavier canvas fabric.  First I did the embroidery and then I bound the short ends with some binding I had in my stash.  I folded up the short ends to get the pocket sizes I wanted.

Binding folded to the right side of the bag

I then serged the edges.  I placed the binding on the wrong side of the bag and folded the ends to the right side.

Stitching down the binding with the 1/4" foot

     I sewed on the binding with a 1/4" seam allowance, pressed and turned to the right side.  When sewing on the binding I also sewed in place the straps that would hold the bag onto the walker.

Pressing the binding

     After pressing binding to the right side I stitched close to the fold to finish off the edges.

Stitching close to the fold

     Then I flipped the strap with the hook part of the hook and loop tape over and stitched it down again so it faced to the back.

Strap with loop part faces away from the bag

Strap with hook part faced the bag, here is it turned back for stitching

     I did the same for the loop part.  This made it easier to take on and off because the straps were facing away from the bag.

Stitched down strap

    Once I had my plan, the cutting and sewing were quite simple.  If I had had more time I would have make it in three pieces so that I could have made a gusseted pocket for her water bottle.  I think I would have also added a snap or hook and loop tape to keep the pocket where she kept her phone from opening up to prevent her losing it.  Also if she was using this for everyday, a key lanyard might be useful in the other pocket.