An oversized beach tote. Aka, a MAMMOTH bag!

....And oh how I'm in looooove! A few months ago I had some left over black out fabric that I had used to line the back of Eli's curtains (a necessity by the way for little sleepers) and it reminds me of a blank canvas and always makes me want to paint it, hence Eli's Mickey mouse growth chart. I just can't help myself. So I added painters tape in rows and painted stripes to this left over fabric with plans of making a large beach bag for summer time down the road when I felt motivated to even make it. I ran out of blue paint half way through though so I decided to switch to yellow. I had made Eli a wet bag for swim class ages ago but it quickly became really cramped with all his swim stuff and mine crammed into the one bag. Also last summer I used to go crazy having to carry my infant, along with 10 other bags to carry all the snacks, dry clothes, water toys, swim gear, etc and vowed to find something "bigger" for next year.

Have any of you noticed how freakin expensive water proof beach bags can be?? What the heck! And naturally the bigger you go, the more expensive they are. Grumble. Operation make-my-own-super-huge-super-inexpensive beach tote to commence immediately. I set a goal to use only supplies I had on hand (since let's face it, I have a fabric problem.) I decided at the end I needed the bag to zip shut so I did end up breaking down and buying a 30in zipper since I couldn't find one in my stash. Waaah!

And a HUGE shout out to my seester who had this freakin ADORABLE table cloth she got on clearance at Target just taking up space in her craft closet, that she happily gave me to line the bag with. 

How PERFECT is this for a beach bag?!?!

I reeeally wanted the inside of the bag to be water proof so this fit the bill. Woo hoo! Best sister EVER! Thank you, thank you, thank you Auntie Stephie!

Whelp, I got the "oversized" part right. This bad boy measures 33in x 19in!! ha ha ha.

Need a little perspective? Here it is with me wearing it:

Ha ha ha! So this is the "blue side"

I apparently didn't think to take a normal pic so you can see the yellow side. Doh!

Inside view. I added an inner zippered pocket and regular pockets for sunscreen etc.

Better view of the pockets.

Look! Eli's shovel and "surf" board even fit in there! Yay!

And lastly, my assistant who is not as thrilled about this bag as me. He was upset that I was interrupting his mopping for a pic. The nerve :/

So naturally I thought, "well Lindsay the bigger it is, the heavier its going to get with all the swim junk essentials you try to put in there..." This is true self, however I'm totally guilty of grabbing all 20 bags to bring into the house instead of making 5 trips after grocery shopping, soooo.....

Summer you can come aaaannnytime now. Heck it's mid March, I'd settle for a little SPRING weather, sheesh!

Ok back to my sewing. We just found out Auntie Stephie is having a baby BOY!!! I've got LOTS to do!

-Linds