You can find all kinds of cute bag making supplies these days. But, it wasn't always that way. Years ago, we made beach bags out of window screen material and they were awesome! This week, I was working on a couple of small travel-size bags for toiletries, and I remembered that trick. So, off to the hardware store I went!
Did you know you can easily sew through fiberglass or polyester screen material? You have to avoid the metal varieties, but the hardware store has a huge selection and different-sized rolls (usually only in gray and black). I bought a gray 36” x 84” roll for around $7… that’ll make a lot of bags :)
I gathered up some scraps for the “cuff” of my bag. I already had a decorative zipper. I cut a piece of screen 12” x 18” for the base of the bag.
You guys know how I am about scraps :) When I like a collection of something, I have the hardest time throwing away even the smallest scraps. This is one such case. I've been saving these scraps for a of couple years now!
I sewed a bunch of these wedge triangles together until I could get at least a 12” strip out of them.
I cut the strip in half lengthwise to make two 2¼” x 12” strips.
I cut a matching set of striped “cuff liners” and two strips of batting. I cut the batting ½” shorter than the fabric strips so I could keep the end seams from bulking up.
I layered the 12” end of the screen material with one of the pieced strips and then the batting. I pinned that all in place and sewed it together with a shy ¼” seam.
For the cuff liners, press the edge over ¼” along one long edge.
Now, pin the raw edge of the cuff liner along the backside edge of the screen material with the pieced strip and batting already attached. This time, sew the cuff liner on with a full ¼” seam to cover the original seam.
Now for the zipper. (I did a full zipper tutorial here showing how I tab off the ends of my zippers for projects like this.) I pinned one edge of the zipper along the raw edge of the pieced strip/batting combo. Sew the zipper in place with a ¼” seam allowance.
Press the zipper out, so the pieced strip and batting are tucked under. Fold the cuff liner piece up, so its folded edge covers the stitch line on the zipper. Pin in place.
From the front side, topstitch through all the layers catching the cuff liner on the bottom side.
Repeat this process with the other side of the zipper and the cuff along the opposite 12” end of the screen.
I used more scraps to make a double-folded 12” long strip (kind of like bias tape) for a handle.
Before sewing up the side seams, I tucked the looped handle into the side seam right at the cuff.
Now the side seams are sewn. I decided to make this a box bottom bag, so I pinched the side seam to the bottom crease and pinned it in place.
I marked a 3½” width for my box bottom, sewed across both corners and clipped the excess off. If you’d like to see more pics of how to make a box bottom bag, you’ll enjoy this blog post I did a little while ago.
Here it is standing all on its own! That screen material is quite sturdy.
This ended up as a pretty good-sized zip pouch, big enough for full-sized bottles of sunscreen and whatever else you might take to the beach. The nice thing is that you can see what’s in there, and it’s guaranteed not to get filled with sand!
Happy Sunday everyone,
Krista