How to make a fun and easy beach bag

Anyone who has read some of the DIY or cooking posts on this blog will know: I like things that are simple, effective and make an impact. This Easter art project and this delicious salad are just two examples. So when I saw this beach bag, I knew it could work as the basis for a fun and easy beach bag.

I really liked the shape of this bag when I saw it online. I still do, and it is actually a good size for the beach or for day tours. The only problem: it’s boring.

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Keychain

I knew I wanted to personalise the bag, add colour and make it fun. However, I was not going to spend much time or money on it – why would I?

I looked online for a tutorial on how to make a pompom keychain for the bag. I found a couple, such as this one, but most of them were more complicated or required things that I could not source easily or for a reasonable price.

Instead, I found a simple keyring online. After almost buying a cute one from etsy, I ended up purchasing this one from amazon. I really liked the colours and the size in relation to the bag.

What to do with the rest?

I debated what I should do with the bag for quite a while. I thought about adding a summer saying to the side of the bag, something like this sunshine bag, but then couldn’t decide what to write. I also considered creating some sort of mandala picture but didn’t find any that would be easy and not too time-consuming to implement.

Once I had purchased the keychain, it was clear that neither of these ideas would work.

But my solution was much simpler and I think effective.

Fun and easy beach bag

What you need

• Straw beach bag like this one or this one.
• A fun keychain
• Thread in colours that match or work well with your keychain. I used embroidery thread. I had two for each colour and have just over one in each colour leftover. I chose six colours.
• Large needle
• Scissors

How to make the bag

1. Work out the order of your colours.
2. Take the first colour. Feed about three centimetres of thread through the needle, then stitch it into the bag handle starting at one end of the handle. Pull the thread through and remove the needle. This will stop the thread from slipping and will mean that you don’t need to tie any knots.
3. Starting next to where you stitched the thread into the bag handle, wind the thread around the bag handle. Take care to keep it tight and keep each line close to the line in before. And wind and wind some more. And keep winding.
4. When you have wound enough of your first colour around the handle, cut the thread and tie a small but secure knot to the thread in the next colour. Then continue winding. Lie the ‘tails’ from your knot flat along the side of the handle and wind over the top. Try and cover the know with your winding.
5. Continue winding, changing colours as you go, until you get to the other end of the handle. Tie a couple of knots to secure the end and cut the thread as close as you can to the knot.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 on the second handle.
7. Attach your keychain and you are ready to go.

Make your own fun and easy beach bag

Bring some extra joy to your summer with this fun and easy beach bag. Once you’ve found a bag that suits your capacity requirements, all you need is some thread and some patience ad you’ll have something unique to take to the beach.

Do you like personalising store-bought goods to make them your own?