fo: Foxy Beach Bag

There's a purple fox in the garden!

I tried to find a new beach bag lately, and basically they can all be summed up as:

• ugly
• no efficient closure (I'm sorry, a magnet snap across a 2 foot opening doesn't cut it)
• striped
• made of woven paper/straw
• UGLY OMG WHY ARE THEY ALL SO UGLY

So whatever, I made one myself.

I used the hobo bag pattern from Sew Everything Workshop out of canvas and some floral cotton I've had in the stash for ages.  I made a couple of changes, including making the bag 1 inch deeper and replacing the lining fabric with canvas on the inside of the handle.

I was going to leave it plain, but then I clued in on adding some embroidery.  Because why not turn a 1 hour project into a 4 hour one!  So out came my copy of Stitch Zakka and on went this cute little purple fox.  (Same book that I got this pattern.)  Actually, it didn't take too long, I just dragged it along to knit night and got it finished by the time they kicked us out of the coffee shop.

Guys, I'm pretty proud of my zipper here.  I think it's the most perfect zipper I've ever installed!

And look at that zipper end!  I love it.  The only thing wrong with this bag is that I put the embroidery on the wrong size.  I prefer to have the zipper opening part in front when I'm carrying it, but it's in the back instead.  Oh well, because otherwise this bag is perfect!

I made another version of this bag years ago and absolutely adored it!  Even when a bunny ate the zipper I didn't stop carrying the damn thing.  I still use it from time to time!  Looking at it now, it's...not very well sewn.  The zipper is crap (but that doesn't matter after a ton of bunny bites), and it's pretty messily sewn.  But whatever, I think I sewed this long before I started garment sewing.

I have more beachy projects to share with you, including a me-made bikini!  But that'll have to wait until I get back, because I'm flying off for a holiday in Mexico tomorrow, and there's not much internet time there (and who wants it anyways)!

Tiny green saskatoon berries in my back yard, already growing in early June!

See ya on the burnt and crispy side, folks!  (Well, hopefully on the still-pasty-but-way-more-freckled side, but we'll see.)