If I were a good blogger I would be talking about Back To School. But, really? Back to School already? It makes me want to plug my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and hum loudly. We are just getting to the dog days of summer! Growing up, the month of August felt like a humongous and vast stretch of hot, muggy weather best spent wet and outside with a popsicle dripping down my chin. I liked it like that. I want an August like that.
So, I’m officially resisting the Back to School mindset and to hammer home my point I’m showing you how to make the perfect pool bag. Perfect because there is space for your towel and smiwsuit as well as enough pockets to store your phone, snacks, flip flops, water bottle and your summer reads, even a place to stash the kid’s wet stuff.
And, it’s made using waterproof laminate fabric (or oilcloth). See, it is perfect!! It’s also beckoning you and your little people to lounge. We all need to lounge more…a lot more. It is still summer and we can shop for school supplies later…a lot later. This dude is with me.
To entice you, the amazing folks at my favorite fabric shop Rock Paper Scissors are providing me with a chance to giveaway some laminate fabric! (Details on the giveaway at the end of the post). You have no excuse. C’mon! Let’s live in the moment and embrace as much time in the water as we can! Ok? Ok.
Here we go. Let’s make the perfect pool bag!
Supplies:
- 1 yard laminate or oilcloth fabric for main bag
- 3/4 yard cotton fabric for bag lining
- 1 yard mediumweight interfacing (such as Pellon # 911FF)
- 1 spool of matching thread
- 3.5 yards of 1″ wide twill tape for straps and top of pockets (If you want sturdier bag straps you could use only 1.5 yards of twill tape and 2 yards of webbing)
- 2 inches of velcro
Cut Fabric:
+ Out of Laminate:
- Cut 2 pieces 13″ across by 16″ high for Front and Back of bag
- Cut 2 pieces 6.5″ across by 16″ high for Sides of bag
- Cut 1 piece 13″ across by 6.5″ deep for Bag Bottom
- Cut 3 pieces 13″ across by 10.5″ high for Large Pockets
- Cut 2 pieces 6.5″ across by 7.5″ high for Side Pockets
- Cut 1 piece 8″ across by 15″ high for Inside Hanging Pocket
+ Out of Lining Fabric:
- Cut 2 pieces 13″ across by 16″ high for Front and Back of bag
- Cut 2 pieces 6.5″ across by 16″ high for Sides of bag
+ Out of Interfacing:
- Cut 2 pieces 13″ across by 16″ high for Front and Back of bag
- Cut 2 pieces 6.5″ across by 16″ high for Sides of bag
- Cut 1 piece 13″ across by 6.5″ deep for Bag Bottom
+ Out of 1″ wide Twill Tape:
- Cut 3 pieces 13″ long
- Cut 2 pieces 6.5″ long
- Cut 2 pieces 32″ long for straps
Sewing with Laminate: Sewing with laminate fabric or oilcloth can be a little intimidating but with a few simple tools and tricks it’s a cinch. As is usually the case with specialty fabric it is all about having the right needle, foot and ironing strategy.
- Use a Walking Foot on your sewing machine
- Sew with a LEATHER needle or heavy-duty needle (remember the higher the # on the needle, the heavier duty it is).
- Press your stitches by placing a pressing cloth between the laminate and the hot iron and don’t iron for long.
- Don’t pin laminate as the pin marks will stay visible. Instead use quilt clips to hold the fabric in place and remove them as your sew.
See! No problem.
Make The Pool Bag:
+ Adhere the Interfacing pieces to their corresponding Lining pieces:
Place the 13″ by 16″ piece of interfacing bumpy-side up and place the wrong side of your same-sized lining fabric exactly on top of the interfacing. Spritz with a bit of water from a spray bottle on the right-side of the lining fabric. Iron on high heat holding in place all over to ensure the interfacing has adhered completely. Repeat for the remaining lining pieces. Be sure to check the manufacturers instructions for how to use your specific kind of interfacing, these are just general guidelines.
+Make the Inside Hanging Pocket (perfect for holding a phone or a snack):
Using the 8″ by 15″ piece of laminate fabric mark a point 2″ in from a short end and 4″ from the long end. Pin one side of your velcro centered on that spot parallel to the short end. Sew in place on all four sides of the velcro strip.
At the opposite short end of the laminate fold over the whole end 1″ . Find the midpoint of the folded portion and place the midpoint of one side of the velco over it, clipping it in place. Stitch along the whole bottom and folded edge of the laminate, making sure to sew over the velcro. Stitch closed the open sides of the velcro.
Fold the laminate lengthwise right-sides together such that the velcro bits match up but are on opposite sides of the fabric, it should be about 6″ up. Stitch at 3/8″ along the sides to create a pocket. Turn right side out. Fold in the side seams 3/8″ for remaining the 2″ above the pocket and stitch in place.
Fold the whole pocket in half lengthwise, creasing the pocket in its midpoint. Do the same with a lining Front and Back Bag portion, leaving a crease at its midpoint. Match the midpoint of these two pieces, line the pocket raw edge with the top of the lining piece and stitch it in place.
+Adding Twill Tape to The Pockets and Prepare Bag Pieces:
From the twill tape cut 3 pieces 13″ long and 2 pieces 6.5″. Fold the twill tape over the top edge of your Large Pocket and Side Pockets and clip in place. Stitch the twill tape in place.
Place 2 Large Pockets on the Front and Back bag body pieces of your laminate fabric and clip them in place at the bottom. Baste stitch in place. Repeat with the side pockets and laminate bag sides. Additionally, baste one laminate pocket at the bottom of the lining piece for the Front and Back of bag that doesn’t already have the hanging pocket. Set these aside.
You will now have the following completed bag pieces: 1) Two lining bag pieces, one with a hanging pocket on top and the second with a bottom pocket, 2) Two Front bag pieces both with pockets on the bottom and 3) Two Side bag pieces with bottom pockets. Good work, you!
Cut two pieces of twill tape 32″ long each. Clip one raw edge of the the twill tape to the top of the laminate fabric front bag piece 3.5″ from the left-hand side of the fabric and the other end of the twill tape at 8.5″ from the left-hand side. Be sure not to twist the twill tape, it should form a u-shape. Stitch in place with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Repeat with other front bag piece of laminate fabric. These are the bag straps.
You will now have all of your bag pockets prepared and we are ready to make the bag!
+Stitch Bag Together:
Begin with one piece of Laminate fabric sized 13″ by 16″ (the bag Front) and one sized 6.5″ by 16″ (the Bag Side) placing the 16″ sides right-sides together matching the top to bottom (pockets are at the bottom) and stitching in place leaving 1/2″ unsewn at the bottom.
Press the seam using a pressing cloth.
Place another bag Front piece in laminate along the remaining side of the bag side piece right-sides together. Align it top to bottom with the raw edges matching and stitch in place in the same manner as before, leave 1/2″ unsewn. Attach the final bag side piece of laminate in the same manner. Your final product will be a long strip alternating from one bag front piece to a side piece to another bag front and a final side piece.
Finally, take the open end of the bag front piece and line it up with the open edge of the bag side piece right-sides together, leaving the same 1/2″ unsewn at the end. This will create a rectangular-shaped tube.
Grab your bag bottom piece and attach it right-sides together (using clips) to the bottom of the bag lining up the long and short sides.
To sew the bag bottom in place, stitch along the long straight side starting about 2″ in from the end. When you reach the corner, fold the fabric seams over each other and stitch over them. By leaving the 1/2″ unsewn at each corner, it will allow you to spread and manipulate the fabric at the corner and ‘turn the corner’.
At 1/2″ to the end of the bag bottom fabric sink the needle into the fabric, lift the presser foot, pivot the fabric and stitch the short end of the bag bottom. Make sure you are only stitching through the raw edges of the fabric at this point, it’s easy to accidentally sew the sides as well.
Repeat with the same method the whole way around to attach the entire bag bottom. You have created your outer bag shell!
Repeat the same bag construction method with your lining fabric pieces to create the lining bag shell.
Place the lining bag shell right sides together with the outer bag shell lining up the top raw edges and tucking the bag straps in between the outer and lining bag shell. Stitch with a 3/8″ seam allowance along the entire top of the bag, leaving a 6″ opening.
Gently pull the lining and and outer bag right sides out through the 6″ opening.
Stuff the lining inside the laminate bag and top stitch around the whole bag top being sure to complete close up the opening.
Fill that bag and head the pool!!
Giveaway Time:
Win 1 yard of laminate fabric of your very own because laminate cloth is awesome and then you can make your own bag Perfect Pool Bag!
Enter the giveaway from now until Sunday, August 10 at 5pm EST!!
GIVEAWAY Winner: The winner (based on a random number generator) is the 24th eligible entrant and, drum roll, that is: Cyndi!! Watch your email Cyndi, I will be in touch!
Thank you so much to everyone. I read every comment and so thoroughly enjoyed hearing the often-time very personal and touch summer memories. You all are making August great for me! Thanks!!
Thanks to Rock Paper Scissors who provided the fabric for my pool bag and the giveaway fabric. They are so nice like that! They are also on Instagram & Etsy as well as being one of the most perfect places to visit in person.
Fantastic bag and tutorial! Clear and concise. Excellent, as always, Melissa!
A couple of other tips for using laminate:
– if you don’t have a walking foot, use a Teflon foot.
– if you don’t have either of these feet, you can put a small piece of scotch tape un the underside of your presser foot. Just make sure you clean it off well (no gummy stuff left!) before your next project.
– OR, place a piece of tissue paper between the laminate and the presser foot. It is easily removed after you sew your seam.
– if you don’t have quilt clips, small binder clips from an office supply store will work also.
Have fun sewing, lounging, and swimming your way through August! And good luck in the giveaway!
Oh, and my favorite summer memory (even if I am excluded from the giveaway) …. evening bonfires on the beach at my old summer house in Maine. Ah …. summer …
Fantastic tips Beth! Yup, laminate is so awesome. I love your summer memory, too. Sounds luscious.
Great tutorial, Melissa and what a great giveaway! Thanks, Rock Paper Scissors!
Hmm, I have a favorite childhood summer memory…We used to go “down the shore” (in NJ) to Wildwood with my family. I did not enjoy getting sand in my bathing suit or even on my feet. Ha! But, the best part was playing in the ocean and jumping the waves! My dad used to lift me up so high (well, at least it felt that way) if a giant wave was coming. Oh, the gold ol’ days.
Melissa, you have inspired me to spontaneously close the studio for the afternoon to pack up and go to the pool. Thanks, I needed that reminder.
I loved going to the beach for a week every summer with my family. We had ice cream, warm sand, and lots of fun. Thanks for the great giveaway!
Favorite summer memory is swimming! I guess that’s why I want to make a pool bag like this one even thought I have more than enough bags.
Great idea for the bag. With all the new fabric out there to make diaper covers the ideas are endless for cuteness. Favorite memory: As a child there was a spot by the lake where there wee lightening bugs everywhere. A few years I moved back to near where I grew up and took my own kids to the same spot for an evening picnic. It was like seeing it all new through my kids eyes again.
Great bag! My favorite summer memory is biking around Cape Cod with my twin brother- we usuly stayed right next to a bike trail. We experienced the type of freedom (and secret ice cream trips) thst was unique to summer!
Love that bag. Thanks for the posting of the Teflon coated foot, I would of been a mess figuring that out. Great tutorial, thanks for the chance.
Beautiful. Thanks for the tips.
I much prefer the real laminated fabric (vs. the kind you iron on the laminate). Thanks Rock, Paper, Scissors. Beautiful stitching on your pool bag! svonfumetti at yahoo dot com
Watermelon seed spitting contests with my brothers. I am amazed at how much watermelon we could eat!
Beautiful bag!!! I love watching my son catching baby lizards and frogs on the patio!
allisonpogany@gmail.com
My favorite summer memory is taking our children to the beach each summer. My kids are grown now but we managed to make a trip back (the whole family) last year. Just as much fun as when they were little.
My favorite memory is when my daughters were little and had these huge pool toys to ride on – very sweet!
I love that bag and fabric!! So great!! I made a bag out of oilcloth at the beginning of the summer for the pool and I can’t imagine not having one now oilcloth and the pool/beach are perfect pair!!! My favorite childhood memories, being at the beach, doing cartwheels off the diving board and wandering through the woods on adventures with the neighborhood kids
Great bag and thanks for the tutorial. I actually understood the directions the first time I read them. Perfect! My favorite summer memory was when we went to 1000Islands , New York with the kids and went boating. They still talk about that trip as being their favorite.
My favorite summer memory from when I was a child is picking wild flowers with my mother and chasing lightning bugs.
What a great bag! Thanks for the tutorial. My favorite summer memories are of running around the backyard catching fireflies and waving sparklers with my sisters.
Catching fireflies on warm summer evenings. What a great bag! 🙂
clc97423@gmail.com
Pretending we girls weren’t scared to sleep outside in a backyard tent…and then hearing a noise and running screaming into the house:
Great tutorial—thank you so much for sharing. I need such a bag for work too, and the pool of course.
Hmm, I remember coming to the US for the first time when i was in the 9th grade — winter in australia, summer in america! (Then after college, I packed up and moved here for good!)
My favorite summer memory is Fridays at the beach in RI with my cousin and my grandparents, and then changing out of our swimsuits and rushing to watch the Block Island ferry come into port. Afterwards, supper at Aunt Carrie’s, a wonderful seafood restaurant and rides on a historical merry-go-round on the way home.
I love watching my kids play together at the beach. They would run away from the waves, or build sandcastles or dig a hole or just watch the water. They’re so content just being together. I know it’s not going to last, they’ll soon find some friends of their own to hang out with, but for now, I’m enjoying their togetherness.
I love all my summer camp memories. Summer was never my favourite season, but camp was THE BEST! Love the pool bag, too- perfect for the year round swimming lessons! Thanks!
Great bag! My favorite summer memory is riding my bike up the big hill by our house and then coasting alllll the way down. I did this for hours in the summer growing up.
first: stunning bag!!!!! I can’t w as it to make one. I need one for the Y I recently joined in addition to fun swimming with my son! Favourite summer memory is so hard, so many! I think, looking back now my best times that I’m trying to keep fresh in my mind are the times my cousins and I were together, either at our grandparents’ house or their house 4 hours away. We had the best times, even if I was the middle one out of five and seemed to get picked on at times. 😉 We’d make pretend amusement parks and obsticle courses in the backyard. I just remember having a lot of fun. And visiting their house was the best because they belonged to a country club with a great pool. I loved going there with them! And we were allowed to order stuff from the clubhouse with no adults but permission. Eating grilled cheese and french fries on the deck, swimming, and having a blast with two of my cousins at their country club<-yep, that's the favourite. We are all in our 30s now(except the baby of the group who is still in his 20s) with kids of our own making memories. Tragically, we lost my one cousin to domestic violence 3 years ago. These memories are so precious to me. 🙂 sorry for the long comment 🙂
Camping with my kids when they were little. So much fun!
Off to shop laminate fabrics now. It is always good to find a new fabric shop!
Swimming at the lake with the kids
summer at the Jersey Shore, smell of noxema.
Going to camp as a kid. It was wonderful to send my 3 kids to the same place this summer!
I loved going to the mountains with my family and playing in the mountain streams. I love your bag!
Great tutorial, clear and concise! My favorite summer memory is of lazing around on my parents’ boat out on the lake with my best friends in high school. 🙂
I grew up in the 70s and lived near Lake Erie. It was always nice to ride your bikes to the beach and hang out for the day smothered in Coppertone lotion.
I used to love swimming in the lake up in Atlanta, Michigan when we’d stat at my grandparents’ summer place! The best!
Love your bag! Favorite memory is when we would visit my grandparents in Oregon and the family reunion picnics at the lake. Great times. Thanks for the great chance at the giveaway.
My favorite summer memories are all the ones I made working at summer camp (6 summers!)– having a ridiculous tan line from all of the friendship bracelets I acquired over the summer, the sound of the whistle for a rec-swim buddy check, kickball, mud hikes, etc.
spending a whole summer learning how to swim – love every minute of it
Since I am really old my favorite summer memories involve visiting my grandmother up in the Ozark mountains. My father was in the Army so we usually lived in a crowded city or on a crowded Army post. When we went to visit her we would go to the nearby White River for hours of family swimming and splashing and since she didn’t have indoor plumbing it served the additional function of allowing us to bathe and wash our hair. Ahh the good old days. She and my Mom loved to sew and quilt. They both would have loved this idea.
My favorite summer memories are rafting down the Truckee and playing hearts with my family at the cabin in the evenings….
Favorite summer memories would be going to the beach and watching movies at the park.
My favorite summer memories are from July each summer on the farm. Even though it was a lot of work for about 10 days, I loved the wheat harvest, packing up the fried chicken, the potato or macaroni salad and freshly made pie to take to the fields and feed the harvest crew. Our own “picnic” outside everyday knowing we had a wheat crop that year. It was fascinating to me watching those big combines go through the field and then dump the golden grain into the trucks to take to the granary for storage until prices were good enough to sell it, or until we needed the money, regardless of the price. It was always a wonderful summer experience.
My favorite summer memory was a week of Girl Scout Day Camp. We also walked to the local pool everyday it didn’t rain. Thanks for the give away!
Going out to our camp in Maine – swimming, boating, picking blueberries, sleeping in the loft. Now I get to bring my little girls!
My favorite memory is walking to the pool every night with my Dad. We had great talks as we walked.
Yesterday, I got go show one of my favorite places for walks where I grew up.
My favorite memory is of riding my horse on my Grandmothers farm, up all the trails through the woods and stopping at the pond and spring for a drink for us both! The bag is great and love the fabric!
My favorite summer memory is riding my horse through the woods on my Grand Mother’s farm and stopping by the spring for a drink. Great bag tutorial and love the fabric!
Going to my grandparents camp
Thank you!!
You are so welcome! Hope I get to see a travel bag from you in the future!!
This is amazing!!! I love it!!!