Plastic Bag Beach Tote

So, a couple of days ago I shared this tutorial on how to make a beach tote out of plastic bags on i---create. I was so happy to be her guest blogger!

Wellll...now I'm gonna post the tutorial up here. Enjoy!

{Questions? Shoot me an email!}

Okay, let's get started! First off, you'll need to grab 22 of those plastic bags you have sitting in your laundry room or kitchen.

Don't worry about how small the pictures are... I'm going to walk you through all the steps! The pictures are just for reference purposes.



1. Grab one of your plastic bags and fold it so it looks like it did originally.
2. Cut off the handles and the very bottom. Then fold the bag into thirds, longways.
3. Cut out two pieces of wax paper big enough to cover the bag. Place bag in between the wax pieces. With your iron on a lower setting (mine was on 3), iron the wax/bag combo. You only have to run your iron over it about three times. Do this to both sides.
4. Once you have done this with your 22 bags, grab 5 of them and sew them together (as shown). Do this twice and you'll have the front and back panels of the bag. For the handles, sew two bags together on the short ends. Fold the sides of the into the center and then in half. Sew down the side to hold them together. Do this twice so you'll have two handles. For the sides, sew two bags together on the long side. Do this twice.
5. Fold down the tops of the front and back panels and sew for a nice, clean edge. Attach the handles to the tops. You may want to sew back and forth so the handles will be nice and sturdy.
6. Your pieces should look picture #6!
7. For the pocket, fold one of the bags in half and place on the front panel of your bag. Sew up the sides of the pocket to attach to bag. Do not sew along the top or it won't be a pocket! Do this to the back panel, also.
8. To make the bottom of your bag, sew two bags together long ways. Do this twice and then attach the sets together on the short ends. Then sew the sides you made earlier onto either end of the bottom portion you just made. It should be a long strand of 8 bags in pairs (shown).
9. Attach the right sides of one of the panels to the right side of the bottom-side portion. It should look like picture #9 once you're done. Then place the remaining panel on top of the bottom-side portion (right sides together) and sew that up.
10. Turn inside out. It should now look like picture #10.
11. To stabilize the bag so it'll stand up better, I cut a cereal box to fit the bottom of the bag.



Yay! All done! Now go use it & go to the beach!!

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