How to Embroider Diaper Bags

Look over the diaper bag and check its lining. Many diaper bags are equipped with a plastic, waterproof lining. Use a seam ripper to separate the seam that attaches the outer diaper bag to the liner. Try to make an opening that is just large enough to slip the bottom embroidery hoop through.

Choose an embroidery hoop that can accommodate the design you want to create on your diaper bag. Place the bottom embroidery hoop through the opening that you made in Step 1. Position it in the area that you want to embroider. Place the outer hoop on top of the bottom hoop, on the outside of the diaper bag. Press down on the outer hoop until it snaps into position. Tighten the adjustment screw on the outside of the outer hoop.

Use tailor̵7;s chalk to the write words--if you want them--embroidered on the diaper bag. Popular choices include your baby̵7;s name or phases such as "Mommy̵7;s Prince," "Daddy̵7;s Princess" and "My Little Angel."

Flip through a book of embroidery patterns related to babies. Trace the design--such as blocks, flowers, bottles or a pacifier--that you like on tracing paper. Place the tracing paper on the diaper bag, and use tailor̵7;s chalk to copy the design onto the fabric.

Select the color of embroidery thread that you would like to use on the design. Thread your needle with up to six strands of embroidery thread. Knot the end of the thread.

Place your embroidery needle beneath the embroidery hoops and push your needle through the fabric--at the edge of one of your letters--and pull the thread through until the knot reaches the underside of the fabric.

Cover each letter with a satin stitch, a long stitch that fills in a large area. The satin stitch goes from left to right: bring the needle up on one side of the letter and take it back down on the other side of the letter. Repeat until the letter is filled in (see Resources for satin stitch help). Knot the thread and cut the excess once you have finished embroidering the letters. A variation on this pattern is to use a different color for each letter.

Use a backstitch to outline the lines of the design. This stitch creates a solid border by making stitches in a line, each stitch touching the next. See Resources for a backstitch tutorial. Keep the length of stitches even as you place one after the other until you have gone all the way around the outline of the design. Make a knot on the underside of the fabric and cut any excess thread when you are finished.

Fill in the outline you created in Step 9 by making satin stitches.

Continue to use the back stitch and satin stitch to embroider the designs.

Loosen the adjustment screw until you can separate the outer hoop from the inner hoop. Slip the inner hoop out of the opening that you made in Step 1. Sew the opening closed with a sewing needle and thread that matches the color of the diaper bag.