AMY BUTER COSMO BAG

I found Amy Butler's newest release STYLE STICHES and it won my heart.  Oh, it is full of fun ideas and colorful pages.  Love the visuals and the oh so pretty patterns.  The COSMO BAG seemed like a bag everyone of all ages would want for their own.  It is a BIG bag so a strong durable fabric only made sense. 

Amy Butler's Style Stiches

My fear of curves had to be overcome so I approached this project w/ an open mind that I would take my time and try to do it as carefully as possible.  Needless to day, I am pleased with the results.  It turns out to be a bag that can be used for overnighters, (daughter already used it twice), traveling (perfect size for a carry-on), beach, sports games, picnics, and the list can go on and on!  The pockets on the inside is way cool and I especially love the xtra deep side exterior pockets! 

Deep pockets on both sides

Nothing, I don't think, can ever fall out of them ever so deep pockets!  This bag will hold A LOT of "stuff". 

Front view of Cosmo Bag

Back View of Cosmo Bag

This bag is really cool, don't ya think?

CROCHET BEACH BAG

Goodness gracious, where has the time gone?  No one told me that having a teeanager and a pre-teen would be so busy! I can only imagine what parenst go through that have more than two actively involved kids....We've been busy with sports, music lessons, and the plain old simple day-to-day activities that consumes so much time.  Would I have it any other way, NO WAY!  Love being busy...keeps me out of trouble (hee, hee!). 

Anyways I want to share with you my recent crochet project.  Thinking back, my first crochet project was probably when I was about eight years old.  Think it was a little lap blankie.  My mom is a self-taught crochet genius that can crochet almost anything just by looking at it and taught me the simple stitches to get me by little projects.  Over the years, she's made tons of blankets (baby blankets up to king size blankets) as well as house slippers, hats, beanies, gloves, ponchos and the list can go one and on.....Luckily, I inherited a few and my kids got a few of their very own "grandma's yarn blankies".

In one of my travels to visit her,  my mom gave me some colored twine she picked up from the local thrift store.  She actually picked them up from a "FREEBIE" bin and insisted I take them.  The only place I can recall seeing this type of twine was at Chinese bakeries where it is used to tie up boxed take out orders.  Here are a few pics of the colorful twine, very pretty:

Just a few weeks after, I saw a cute crochet bag at a popular surf shop and the material reminded me of the twines from my mom sitting in my closet.   As always, I took a close look at the bag, studied the stitches and concluded it was mostly done in chain and single crochet stitches.  EASY (I think)!  When I came home, I went straight to the computer and searched for a crochet pattern.  Wadda you know, I found the perfect bag.....and even had the almost exact color as the bag in the surf shop and instructions.  Found the pattern here at knit-o-matic.

Although the pattern calls it a grocery bag, I think it will do just as fine as a beach bag.  The twine is like a plastic yarn texture so if it gets wet, don't think it will hurt it.

Crochet Beach Bag

Love the fact that the bag is "airy" for those wet swim suits and soggy towels.  There's nothing worse than the smell of that wet beach towel that was fogotten in a plastic bag, uh, maybe last week...eeew!

Beach anyone?

SUMMER BEACH BAG

Here's a bag I have to share with you...I made it for my daughter since she was enrolled in the local P&R summer fun program and they had excusions to the local swimming pool as well as the nearby beaches.  It was clear that she needed a beach bag that was functional for her.  Luckily, the local fabric store, Discount Fabric Warehouse was having another "sale" and I found some really cool vinyl with and without print.  I wanted a bag where she could easily retrieve her items w/out having to dig through all the contents so using a clear vinyl was a thought;  however, I couldn't resist the tropical printed vinyl as it was really pretty.

Went through my sewing library and dug up a pattern from All People Quilt's website here and actually made the bag using only the exterior shell of the free reuseable market bag pattern .  As it turns out, it is the perfect summer beach bag.  It was large enough for a large beach towel, xtra change of clothes, her lunch, all the other little tidbits (brush, sunscreen....).  

There's a pocket in the front ther little things:

Handles were perfect for over the shoulder....Here's a little peek of the bottom where she can see what's in her bag....

Defiitely will make more since here in Hawaii, it's always summer and there's always a recipient for a "Summer Beach Bag".

 At the end of my daughter's beach excursion day, she brought home a bunch of sand that was not invited in our home so she emptied out her bag in the yard, hosed it down clean and left it out overnight to dry....Yes!  One less thing for me to worry about.  Perfect! 

Next on my "To Do List" is to try out the pattern as it is made for, a Reuseable Market Bag....Have YOU tried it, yet?