Beach ready

Last night, I managed to finish up one more travel sewing project: a GIANT beach bag. For the last year or two, we've been using this sad purple reusable shopping bag from Steve Madden, mainly because it was big and I didn't care whether it got wet or covered in sunscreen. But this year, I decided I couldn't take it anymore. I sew things, gosh darn it, and it was time I sewed us a beach bag.

After much scouring of Pinterest and the Interwebs, I settled on this great tutorial from Muse of the Morning. I liked it because it was big (I mean, really big) and lined. A lot of the beach bag tutorials out there are for unlined canvas bags, and I just wasn't feeling that.

I did make a few minor changes to the tutorial. I decided not to use elastic in the side pockets and added snaps to them and the main bag instead. I also lined the pockets, which she doesn't do, and I added a smaller pocket inside for my cell phone, keys, whatevs. I used home dec fabric for the lining and handles and quilting cotton on the outside.

I decided not to use interfacing because I wanted this to be a slouchier bag that could be folded up small when not in use. My bag is also actually slightly smaller than the one in the tutorial because I had to shave an inch off the depth when I ran out of fabric. Oops. Still, I'm pretty sure we won't be hurting for space inside this monster.

The outside fabric is Ying Ming in Navy, an oldie from my stash. The side pockets are Painter's Canvas from Laura Gunn (I think in Lime, but it could be Grass), and the lining and handles are a home dec fabric from Ikea that has appeared in several other projects around here.

Now, we're really set. Beach, here we come.