The Beach Bag Tutorial

Although my beach bag isn't completely done, I feel I must at least start putting together my tutorial. If I don't post it I'll have guilt, especially since I started using the rag rug tutorial that Ruthie shared in exchange. I'm hooked on this rag rug! Thanks for sharing Ruthie!!

Since the bag is for Leen, we started with measurements from a bag her friend had that she felt was the perfect size, 14" wide, 16" tall and 7" deep.

She wanted the bag to have alternating stripes which were 2" wide on the front and back of the bag. Since the final bag was to be 16" tall, we'd need 8, 2" stripes (plus seam allowance) for the front and back of the bag. The two sides and bottom would be one continuous solid yellow piece for stability.

This paper was like gold to me as I figured out how this would all fit together. Feel free to click on it to enlarge it, you can pretty well see my thought process.

The Final Cutting Measurements which include 1/2 seam allowance on each side:
Side/bottom/side 8" x 47" yellow heavy cotton fabric, 1 piece
Stripes 3" x 15" yellow heavy cotton fabric, 8 pieces
Stripes 3" x 15" white heavy cotton fabric, 8 pieces

Pin and sew the stripes together for the front and back. Remember 8 stripes equals one side. I did one straight stitch and one zig zag stitch for extra stability.

Once the front and back pieces are sewn you need to attach them to the side/bottom/side piece. I'm not crazy about the way I did this and I strongly suspect there is a more fluid way to do it. Please feel free to make suggestions. I started by marking the side/bottom/side piece so I would know where to place the front and back pieces. Then I stitched the front and back pieces on using the same straight stitch followed by zig zag stitch. This went smoothly.

When I went to attach the sides of the bag to the front and back, I wasn't crazy about the way the corners came out. I fiddled with it until it worked but I'm in no position to tell anyone else how to do it.

For the liner, I used a single piece of fabric cut to approximately the same measurements as the overall bag if it was totally flattened out, plus seam allowance. My measurements were 22" x 41". I actually allowed 2" of "screw up room" in the larger of the two measurements because I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to attach it to the main bag. As it turned out this was a good choice because of the way I did the top edge.

I opted to start by folding over the top edge and sewing it.
Then with right sides facing each other, I sewed the sides together. I was able to make a much better bottom corner on the liner of the bag than on the bag itself as you'll see here.
Again, I'm not certain how to explain this maneuver so I'm going to leave it to the more eloquent to do the explaining.

I slid the liner into the main bag and decided to attach it by folding the top edge of the liner over and letting it peek out.I did two seams once very close to the bottom edge and one nearer to the top.

Here's the bag so far, straps are on today's agenda.
Don't let my ideas tie you down. Figure out what you have on hand, what you need it to do to be functional and then make your own version that's even better!