Baby Blanket and a Florida-Ready Beach Tote
April birthdays are a big deal. Many of my close friends and family members celebrate in April, including me. I typically use my birthday as an excuse to throw a themed party – and I go hard on the details.
We’re talking a Bridgerton-style tea party with a real china set, various flavors of loose leaf tea, scones made from scratch, lace gloves and obnoxious hats.
Or a funeral when I turned 30 (RIP to my 20’s) that featured dedicated memorial programs for each guest, fully stocked travel pill box party favors (think Tums, Claritin, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Pepto), and “Botox” Jell-O shots in food-grade syringes.
Anyway, this year looked a little different because we had a very special addition to the April birthday club. One of my fellow Taurus ladies was celebrating her son’s first birthday. We weren’t doing a big party for the girl group but I still wanted to do something special for her.
When my friend’s son was born, I made him this delicious striped chevron baby blanket using four different colors of CotLin yarn. This yarn has been a go-to for several baby blankets primarily because it doesn’t pill or lose it’s shape after being washed.
As it happened, I had some yarn leftover from the chevron baby blanket and since our families were going on a Florida vacation together soon I decided to make her a beach bag.
Jute, Faux Leather, and Luck
Okay, so my experience making bags is limited to market totes,and a limp sack wasn’t going to cut it for all the stuff you have to take to the beach when you have kids. This bag needed structural integrity.
Enter: the jute. My local big chain craft store had some, and it was surprisingly easy to work with despite how rigid it was. It formed perfectly, giving the bag a good amount of durability.
Once the base was wide enough I switched to the yarn. The chevron design wasn’t going to be easy and time was short so I did a shell stitch, alternating colors every few rounds. At the top I did several rounds of dense single crochet so straps could be attached with out fear of ripping the stitches later when the bag was full and heavy.
Adding the straps was a PITA at first.. The set I bought came with buttons to fasten the straps to the bag but they came apart easier than a cheap plastic zipper (see photo below). I bought purse screws (Amazon) instead – Amazing. Instant upgrade! They were easy to attach and made the bag feel more upscale and I really wish I took a photo of them on the bag.
Operation Beach Bag: Success
This project unintentionally became a turning point and inspired me to start considering patterns out of my norm. The jute initially seemed intimidating, but I’m looking forward to working with it again and possibly improving on the design of this bag. In the end though, this bag is a beautiful, practical, and sentimental gift that my friend will hopefully cherish for years to come.
