Channeling Mary Poppins: A Look Inside the Brooke Van Gory Upsized Expedient Bag

A detailed Brooke Van Gory Diaper Bag review; from fabric choices, to bag details, to what fits inside. Is the BVG Expedient right for you?

You’ve heard me talk about Brooke Van Gory Expedient diaper bags. I’ve entered contests to win one. I’ve blogged about my desire to purchase one. I’ve celebrated finally purchasing my custom bag on facebook, then shared my experience selecting fabric, viewing sneak peek production photos, and waiting for the bag to ship. My custom Brooke Van Gory Upsized Expedient arrived a few of weeks ago and I’ve had some time to stuff it full, drag it around with  my kids, and try it out.

I know lots of mamas are trying to choose between different diaper bag options and a purse such as this is a big investment. There are numerous directions to go when reviewing a product with so many details and I could fill pages with information. For the purpose of this particular review, I am going to focus on the big questions I had about the Brooke Van Gory Upsized Expedient Bag:
1. Is it large enough to fit multiple cloth diapers, plus a variety of baby items, and toddler gear?
2. Will I have to sacrifice comfort and style for size and functionality?
3. How much can an Upsized Expedient really  hold?

I am going to tackle these questions in particular by primarily focusing on the size and functionality, with a few observations about fabrics and design. This review is based on an Upsized Expedient set I purchased independently and I am sharing my honest opinions and experiences with the product.  This review is not endorsed or sponsored by Brooke Van Gory Designs.
Overall Impression:
If you are looking to create a one of a kind custom bag, the Brooke Van Gory Upsized Expedient is a unique way to make a statement and carry a functional bag that shows your personality. While the Upsized Expedient fits it’s Mary Poppins tagline, it is surprisingly lightweight and can easily meet the needs of moms of twins, a baby and toddler, and families who use cloth diapers. Some style is sacrificed for functionality, but it’s a bag I would carry after my diapering days are over. The generous size can be inconvenient at times, but it is an option worth considering for parents whose carrying needs exceed a standard sized diaper bag.

The Bag in Person:

The BVG bag is a practical design with few frills. Be aware that it is all about the colors and fabrics you choose. The Upsized Expedient is substantial, so your fabric will proceed you. You won’t recede into the background with this bag. Go bold, go elegant, go whimsical, but make sure you love your fabric.

Detail Fabrics: This is the good stuff of the bag! The options are endless and you can definitely make a statement with your fabrics. I am crazy about all the little details, including the gorgeous strap fabrics, contrasting piping, and peek a boo zipper. Brooke even sewed different thread colors throughout the bag, with blue on the bag body, green on the base straps, orange at the top, and verigated around the top straps. All of these small details make the bag feel special.

Base Fabric: Before receiving the my bag, I envisioned the base fabric being made of a sturdier canvas like the straps. I like the lightweight feel of the fabric (brown on my bag), but I’m a bit ambivalent about the look of it. I’m also not particularly fond of the way it puckers at the top due to the weight of the straps and still shows creases from when it was originally folded. This fabric is definitely not the star of the bag, though, so it’s not the focus when casually looking at the bag.

Pockets: This bag had 9 pockets – 4 on the outside and 5 on the inside, one zippered.  I don’t use bottles or cups for baby yet and Ezra doesn’t need to travel with a sippy cup, so I like to use the two outer bottle pockets for tissues, my cell phone, and keys. The big outer pockets (hidden behind your panels of fabric) are great for slipping a shopping list, notebook, or baby’s hat – anything you need quick access to. The inside pockets are cavernous and I slip in toys, baby books, snacks, and sometimes my wallet. They are so big in fact, I’d actually like to see one split in two to keep smaller items such as pacifiers, baby asprin, and hand sanitizer. The zippered pocket is great for mom items such as lipgloss, keys, tampons, and gum.

Structure: The Upsized Expedient has built in structure at the base, making it so the bag stands to fill without tipping over. I appreciate this addition to the bag, which helps the bottom remain sturdy, without adding much weight or bulk.
Size and Feel:
Sometimes I reach in the bag and feel a bit like I could be like Mary Poppins and pull out a lamp, mirror, and umbrella! It’s a lot of bag, so organization is essential.


Expedient vs Upsized Expedient: I actually have a smaller diaper bag that I love the look of. It’s gorgeous and I enjoy carrying it, but it’s simply too small. A few cloth diapers in and a change of clothes and I maxed out the bag, with stuff constantly teeming over. This is what helped me finally make the leap to purchasing an Expedient.

To decide which BVG was right for my needs, I took the measurements and compared them to my current bag. I was surprised to discover that the original Expedient was slightly wider and shorter than my existing bag. Problem solved. I ordered the Upsized, which has the following measurements:

H: 16 ”
L: 19″
W: 8″
Strap Length 31″

To give you an idea of all the room in this bag, here’s Kai who is 7 months!

Overall, I’m very happy with the size. This is a big bag, but it’s surprisingly lightweight and the length of the straps makes it very comfortable to carry. I purchased an extra strap for $10 to go across my body, but haven’t needed it yet. I’m kind of glad, because it’s a utilitarian adjustable black strap and it doesn’t jive with my bag that well. I’m in love with the orange straps anyway – they’re one of my favorite parts of the bag!

Side view courtesy of my toddler, the only available photographer at the time.
So, What Fits Inside a BVG Bag?

This is a versatile bag with more room than I can fill some days. I wish I’d had my Upsized Expedient right after Kai was born and I needed diapers for a newborn and a toddler! There is plenty of room for several newborn/small cloth diapers, plus an extra for a toddler. If you cloth diaper and like having lots of go-to items in one place, this is definitely the bag size for you. Just plan to organize, because it’s easy to lose things in the depths, there’s so much room!

What’s currently in my Brooke Van Gory Upsized Expedient?
1 Package of Tissues
1 Cell Phone
1 Key Chain
1 Baby Hat
1 Extra Strap
Random Papers
2 Stuffed Pocket Cloth Diapers
1 Changing Pad
1 Pair of 6/9 month pjs
2 fabric bins
1 Boon Spoon
1 Baby Spoon
2 Jars of Baby Food
1 Snacks Container
1 Wipes Case
1 Nursing Cover
1 Onesie
1 Wallet
1 Flannel Blanket
1 pair of baby socks
Eye Drops
Cell Phone Toy
Toy Rings
Hand Sanitizer
2 Baby Books
2 Rattles
2 Pens
1 Checkbook
1 Miscellaneous Baby Toy
Granola Bar
2 Fruit Snacks
1 Juice Box
1 Baby Jacket

*If I moved a few things around or didn’t mind it being super stuffed, I can fit a sling, a baby’s coat, or my Soft Structured Carrier Cover.

Accessory Options:
I purchased the Upsized Set, which includes a Changing Pad and Wet Bag, in addition to the bag. These are custom made to coordinate with your bag. Since I used two patterns on my bag, my wet bag is in one fabric and the changing pad in another.

Wet Bag: Brooke offers a unique wet bag option you can’t find elsewhere. To save even more space in your bag, she’s attached the wet bag on the outside. This is so convenient when you go to change baby. No searching for your wet bag and no stuffing it back in when you’re done. Simply unzip, put it in, and go without worrying about soiled unstuffed diapers messing up your bag mojo.

I compared the BVG wet bag to my favorite, the Large wet bag from the Nappy Shoppe. The BVG is slightly smaller than the Nappy Shoppe Bag and uses a slicker white PUL, rather than the brown PUL in the NS bag. I like the wet bag overall and love the clip on feature. My only recommendation would be to make it slightly larger.

Changing Pad: This is fairly simple in design and includes your main body fabric with a flannel backing. I’d be curious to see how it would look using the gorgeous minky with the raised dots, although this would certainly increase the cost. If you are trying to decide between accessories, you might consider a coordinating diaper cover over a changing pad if you are a lazy parent like me and only use one occasionally.

The Custom Experience:

Since a huge part of the appeal of the BVG bag is customizing your own, I thought I’d share a few ideas on things I love about my choices, options I’d do differently, and fun choices for your bag.

First of all, when Brooke Heavey, owner of Brooke Van Gory Designs, says her favorite bag is the one she’s currently working on, she sincerely means it. Brooke will patiently help you select fabrics, talk through design choices, and wait while you change your mind over minute details. She wants this to be a great experience for her customers, and it shows.

While I am normally decisive, I found it oddly challenging to decide on my fabric and to visualize all of the different elements. This bag was a big investment for me, something I plan to use for a long time, so I wanted to make enduring selections. To make the process easier, I would recommend deciding ahead of time if you want to choose every little detail of your bag. If so, make sure you understand all of your options, get a good visual of the different design elements you’ve chosen, and be clear and decisive. If that sounds overwhelming, you might appreciate selecting a few details and enjoying the element of surprise. Either way, perusing the Brooke Van Gory facebook albums is a great way to glean inspiration for your project, as are Brooke’s Pinterest Boards filled with an eclectic range of fabrics.

Here are a few design elements I recommend considering for your bag:
* Go All in: Add a surprise fabric color inside your bag (I wish I’d thought of this for mine)!
* Choose a peek a boo zipper color for your bag and wet bag.
* Consider contrasting thread colors, but be aware that this might not be the right choice for a perfectionist because the contrasting thread is less forgiving than a matching thread might be.
* Add variety to your straps by putting one color at on the bag below your hardware and another color above.
* Think outside the box to make the bag your own.

And, lastly, the cloth diaper challenge posed by reader Jill at Life is Not Bubble Wrapped:
“How many,( let’s say worst case double stuffed OS pockets) can you fit before adding more things, leaving room for a change of clothes for a toddler, for example?”

I never use double stuffed one sized pockets because I use fitteds when I need extra absorbency. I hope you’ll forgive me Jill – I packed a series of single stuffed one size pocket cloth diapers in the bottom of the bag. I fit eight comfortably, with room for a changing pad, wipes case, and tons of space at the top for those extra toddler clothes.You could easily fit twice as many newborn diapers inside the bag, with room to spare.