Homemade Christmas Present Idea: Swim Bag and Matching Towels!

If you're guessing there's intense sewing involved in this gift idea, you'd be right.  And if you haven't sewn before, just forget it, now - because I'm probably the best that I know of, and this is a really, REALLY intense project.  Bahahaha.  Okay, not really.  I wrote that instead of the 'if you know anything about me, you'll know that if I managed to pull this off - you'll be just fine!!' I was going to write :)

It's true.  In grade 8 my teacher pretty much made my home ec. boardies for me, and I chose different subjects in grade 9, much to the great relief of both of us.  Very shortly after I had Maggie, I asked Mum to sew me a nursing cover to help me feed in public.  She said that she would make one for someone else, and teach me to make my own at the same time, and I can't remember, but I'm sure I complained loudly that I actually had to use the sewing machine.  Nursing covers I'm now calling my speciality, because I've made like, 10 of them (I'm pretty expert at sewing a hem around a square lol) - but that's for another post.  THIS post is about these towel bags.

I saw them at theidearoom.net.  There are two different bags - one with a drawstring for boys, and one with a shoulder strap for girls (you can find the tutorials she wrote for them through the links).  In a fit of insanity, I decided I would sew them for all of James' younger cousins for Christmas.  6 boys, and 4 girls.  2 Christmases later I'd finally run out of excuses and other ideas, sucked up my courage and started sewing.  They were pretty easy after all (phew), and I was really happy with the results!!! :)  AND even though I thought they'd be the cousins' least favourite, overly 'useful' Christmas present, they all LOVED having their own beach towel and matching bag (most of them live at the beach and spend a LOT of summer in the boat, waterskiing and swimming at the beach), so I was glad it wasn't a flop lol :)  


The theidearoom.net tutorials suggested a cheap place to get nice towels in the States, but it did take me a while to find cute, price-efficient towels here, especially cause I was making so many on a budget.  You need 3 towels for each 2 gifts - 2 towels go inside the bags, and 1 towel makes 2 bags, if that makes sense.  I ended up getting the boys' towels from Crazy Clarks on sale for $6 each, and then randomly found the girls' towels at Pillow Talk for I think $5 each - and I was really happy with them - lovely quality.  Make sure you measure the towels before you buy them - a lot of towels they sell are tiny, and they need to be at least 150cm by 75cm I think... from memory... :)


Anyway, here's one of my finished boys towel bags and matching towel (next to a stack of wrapped ones lol - I was so excited when they were all finished!! :))

And here are the girls' towel bag with matching towel - cute for a girl :)

I think/hope the girls liked theirs too! :) 

Anyway, that's my idea post this week - if you're like me, and you begin now, you should have some towel bags ready by Christmas 2014!!! :)

Happy sewing!!! :)