is there a doctor in the house?

Does this look familiar?! Your child's doctor kit with broken locks. This one is the second I have bought for my kids and it's the second one to break. The locks always snap off and get lost, making the storage case useless.

My solution: make a cloth bag (of course)!

If you'd like to make your own 'Lil Medic's bag' - I've prepared a little tutorial for you. If you'd prefer to simply buy one - click here to check out my Etsy Shop.

Here's how I made mine-

You'll need:

- black fabric cut into two 8" x 12" pieces as well as two 12" x 2.5" strips for the straps
- another fabric of your choice for the inside lining (cut into two 8" x 12" pieces)
- a small piece of red fabric cut into a + shape, roughly 3 inches tall (to do this I created a paper template and then traced and cut it out of fabric)
- matching thread 
- sewing machine

1.  Once all of your fabric is cut, you are ready to pin the red cross shape onto one of the black rectangular pieces. Place the cross in the middle horizontally, but raise it 1" to 2" above the vertical center. Confused? See picture below.

2.  Applique the cross onto the panel using matching red thread and a small zig zag stitch.

3.  Then sew the two black rectangular panels, with right sides together. I used a serger for mine, but a regular straight stitch is just fine. Do the same for the other 2 fabric panels.

4.  Then pinch the corner to line up the seams together and cut about an inch off the corner. Stitch across so that it looks like this:

5.  Do this again with the opposite corner. 

6.  Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 with the lining fabric.

7. Turn the black piece right side out, but leave the lining fabric with the right sides inside.

8. Fold and iron down the tops of each bag so that they look like the picture above.

9.  Fold the two 12 inch strips and sew the long raw edge lengthwise - creating a tube by leaving the two ends open.

10.  I used a pin to turn the fabric right side out. TO do this, pin one side of the tube, only putting the pin through one layer of fabric. 

11. Pull the pin through the inside of the tube and out the other end. Repeat for both strap pieces.

 11. Iron both straps flat and top stitch along the sides.

12. Insert the lining bag into the outer bag. Pin the straps in place and straight stitch along the top edge of both bags. I prefer to use a walking foot for this step but it's not necessary.

 Now you should have a bag made to last and hold all your lil' medic's supplies.