Sashay Satchel

Perfection at Petunia Pickle Bottom Prices

Oh, Petunia. How I loathed those boxy backpack diaper bags that were all the rage fifteen (has it really been that long?!?) years ago. I carried one for work once, and found it bulky and hard to manage, and that was with two hands free. Although I saw the appeal in the patterns and colors. I couldn’t imagine wanting such hard to care for fabric while caring for another human. I tend towards Skip Hop’s machine washable bag myself.

Then just before my third child came along, I stumbled upon the Sashay Satchel. I spotted it at a park and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Finally, I broke down and ordered one for myself shortly after delivery. I’m so glad I did, and I take back any nasty thought I ever had about the brand.

I’ll start with the best part. The satchel can be an over the shoulder bag or a backpack. The straps for either stay permanently attached, so I need to keep track of one less thing in the zoo of wipes, spare clothes, hand sanitizers, bottles, pacifiers, toys, and all my own personal stuff. The backpack straps unclip at the bottom from rotating hardware, which means they can never get hopelessly tangled. Whatever strap you don’t need tuck nicely inside the open back pocket, which runs almost the entire height of the bag. That means the duplicate straps never bother you no matter how you choose to carry it.

And the patterns. The fabric now comes in a wipe clean dirt resistant coated canvas, which makes all the difference between practical and practically insane. If you never set your diaper bag down on grass, dirt, and questionable surfaces likes public changing areas and underneath airplane seats, more power to you. For the rest of us, they offer coated canvas.

I paid full retail for my bag more than three years ago, and I don’t regret a single penny. I still carry it today whenever I need a bigger bag, and I still get oodles of compliments on it. I no longer use it as a diaper bag of any sort, since it doesn’t contain diapers, but it works just as well, and I’m only growing happier with it as time passes.

It does not fit perfectly under airplane seats if you fly with the masses in coach (which is all I ever do), but you can tilt it a bit to make it work. The tight fit doesn’t prevent me from flying with the versatility of two types of carrying straps, but I hate squishing it even the tiniest bit because I love it so much and my Orla Kiely coated canvas bag started cracking where the straps bent over under their own weight when not hung or carried.

In addition to the large magazine pocket on the back outside, the Sashay Satchel sports two side pockets big enough for bottles or small adult water bottles. The front boasts another big, deep pocket with easy access, and includes a smaller sewn in pocket for phones, IDs, or other cards. Inside, it has another two side pockets with elastic openings just the right size for a bottle or a couple kid toys, as well as two other open pockets along one side and one zippered interior compartment on the other. It includes a key clip, so keys don’t get lost at the bottom of the the bag. The top zips fully closes, which makes a huge difference in the toddler stage when they want to take everything out of your bag over and over again as soon as it lands anywhere in reach.

It comes with a wipes case and includes a changing pad, though I never used that. I tossed in my beloved Skip Hop Pronto changer anytime I had my infant with me (which was always for at least ten months). Now that we’ve passed that stage, I can toss in my entire smaller bag and still have room for snacks and drinks for my kids when we leave the house, all on my back.